I get it, I get it… There was once an era when guitars ruled. When drums were powerful and long hair was, well, the fashion. I understand; it is hard to let go. Especially when you have been playing since then and stuff.
Annihilator, the Canadian band, have released a new album titled Metal. Metal sounds like, well, metal. No surprise here. Metal is a statement in itself: I am going to be daring and I am going to call it a tribute to how things were done in the late ‘80s. So much so that it contains a song titled Army Of One that basically names many of the ‘80s metal bands.
Annihilator are good when they keep things simple and easy. The best songs in this album are the two that are less than five minutes long. The rest get tangled in shredding and wasting time and energies reliving (not revitalizing) a sound that has better examples than this album.
One would think that with the story Annihilator has (16 years, 20 tours, 10 studio CDs, plus the dreaded “best of†and “live†albums), they would have decided to grow. They remain the same. Some would say that they are keeping true to their roots. And that is just fine, but it takes more than that to preserve the essence of their music. It is a sacrilege that they have tried to make such an ‘80s sounding album without making it in analog, for instance (I understand, money issues). Metal, the album, sounds like some sort of spin-off from ‘80s Metallica. So much so, in fact, that it is no wonder the album is called Metal. There are musical references to Master Of Puppets throughout the album.
This album only exists for either hard core fans of Annihilator, or for those nostalgic of the long-hair bands… Unfortunately, the latter will turn to the real thing instead.
