Annihilator - Ten Years in Hell
	Release date: February 17th 2006 Label: Steamhammer Distribution: Target (Denmark) Website: www.annihilatormetal.com Style: Thrash/speed Rating: 98/100 Cover artwork rating: 95/100 Reviewed by: Thomas Nielsen Date: February 12th 2006

I’m a professed Annihilator schizo. I’ve been so on and off since I picked up a fresh vinyl copy of “Alice In Hell” back in 1989. Technically adept, raw, yet with humour, the hot Canadian thrash/speed hope made a lasting impression on a good portion of a generation of metal fans. “Never Neverland” (1990) was less raw but technically as brilliant as “ Alice ” and with a new singer. “Set the World on Fire” (1993) divided the fans because some claimed Annihilator had gone pop. For many reasons STWOF has been my personal favourite along with “ Alice ” through all these years.  

Throughout the nineties, things went downhill for Waters and his ever changing entourage. Three less inspired albums, the negative climax, so to speak, being “Remains” (1997), more or less entirely recorded by Waters himself and a drum machine.  

The turning point was 1999’s “Criteria for a Black Widow”. Not because the production was fantastic or because the songs were the best in the world, but simply because that the album sounded like a band effort and had that band energy. Randy Rampage had returned with a needed stint of Alice In Hell madness, blowing some life into Annihilator before getting booted straight out again due to his uncontrolled on-tour alcohol infested madness.

Two good quality studio albums and one live album followed with former Overkill guitarist Joe Comeau behind the mike, stabilising the fan support. When Comeau disappeared, young Canadian Dave Padden took over the vocal duties and was thrown into a European tour and the recording the slightly experimental but quite solid effort “All For You”.  

However, it was only with last year’s “Schizo Deluxe” that Annihilator came full circle and made the “Alice In Hell” mark. Excellent riffing, quality songs, power, METAL!  

Now, for someone like me, a guy who spent many a teenage (well, and beyond..) night banging his head to Alice, Never and Set, who actually saw Annihilator open for the mighty Priest on the opening night of the 1990 European tour, the “Ten Years in Hell” DVD is a sorely missed god sent.  

Having the old videos served like this in good quality is great. Hell, some of these official videos I haven’t even seen before!  

Apart from that, it can only bring a tear to your eye to see a very young Jeff Waters try to convince an MTV interviewer, a Vancouver television channel presenter and most likely himself that he and the boys stay off the booze etc. Man… In the third interview relating to the topic, Jeff confesses that there had been a bit of a problem in the past. It’s very honest, and in a way  a warning to young bands to include this material. It only shows that for all your talent, it’s bloody easy to cock things up, and it’s a battle to come back.  

The first of the two discs consists mostly of the videos and live recordings of the first ten years of Annihilator. Second disc is a very pleasant experience for any Annihilator/Jeff Waters fan. It’s basically Jeff talking his way through the years and giving his down-to-earth account of the ups and downs and his take on the people he worked with.  

Also chipping in are some of the people that helped shape the band’s sound, e.g. co-song writer John Bates, “Never Neverland” singer Coburn Pharr, “STWOF” guitarist Neil Goldberg, drum wiz Mike Mangini and bass player Russel “Woodsman” Bergquist.