Annihilator's Jeff Waters Comments On New Album

ANNIHILATOR frontman Jeff Waters has issued the following update on the band's forthcoming new album. According to Waters, the release will include seven or eight “metal classics”. He calls them classic because “most of the tracks will be REALLY hard to play”. Jeff continues, commenting that the guitar work on the material is the “fastest (although that doesn't necessarily mean best) picking I have done. Super tight. If you are a fan of the riffs I come up with or came up with earlier on, then this will be the CD you are waiting for. These tunes were written the way I did in the earlier years; fast picking and also in the way where I would go from killer riff to killer riff. A Rifforama but in a bit more up-dated manner.” Waters also refers to three new songs “that are more straight ahead and, in my opinion so far, taking the real metal of the 80's and simplifying the format to today's style. By this I do NOT mean like something you would hear on the radio; more like keeping it simple and having the vocals take over and be the centre-piece of the tune.” Commenting on “two lovely melodic songs,” Waters continues. “I was hesitant to put (the tracks) on the CD, but they are just too good a pair of songs to not share. I may sing one of them, a tune I wrote for my awesome son, Alex.”

“So we basically have three styles; seven – eight-ish true-Annihilator-pure riff classics, a few melodic lovely songs and some newer and simpler vibes on three tunes.” Jeff comments on new vocalist Dave Padden, “Wait til you hear the vocals on this one; I think the addition of Dave (Padden) is gonna surprise a lot of you (and me)! Although this was absolutely not our/my intention when we quickly hurried Dave into the band, he is the most likely singer and front-man to give Annihilator more recognition; his voice is in the extreme's of heavy and clean but also in the middle. A lot of influences in all styles of metal for him including a lot of modern stuff. This CD will really be a merger of the 80's “tribute” metal we are known for playing and of the new and broader style of new heavy metal as we know it today.” Regarding his guitar playing, Waters states, “As far as my guitar playing goes, not to sound ego “ish”, but I think I have seriously kicked my butt, playing-wise, this time. No laziness, no taking my playing for granted, no BS; just back to the guitar playing I know I had inside me.

Used my ESP KK Downing V-350. This was a new experience for me as it as I have ALWAYS played guitars with non-tremolo/whammy bar bridges; the kind that you get on a Les Paul or a Gibson V. The V-350 has a whammy bar so I basically had to learn a brand new way of picking the guitar. If you are a guitarist and follow our CDs, you will probably know that my right hand picking can be very fast and very tight. Changing to a different style was very strange (the old way I could just rest and stabilize my right hand “heel” on the bridge). I had to learn how to pick fast and tight with no support from the bridge so my hand was basically in mid-air! I think Van Halen does this on some of his stuff. But now pick tighter and faster! hehehe! IT will certainly either excite or piss off a few aspiring and currently-successful guitarists but hey, it ain't about the speed! hehehe! Or is it!??! Maybe I should start to use the publicity I get to my advantage; here are the headlines: “Canadian Metal Guitarist Jeff Waters claims to be the fastest and tightest Metal Guitar Player in the World” !!! (and they said he was a nice guy from Canada without the attitude! ha!).

While I use Line 6 amps live and on the last CD and live CD, I used my old Marshall JCM800 50 watt for this CD. Radial Technologies TONEBONE classic tube dist/OD box. 57 microphone. Nothing special sounding BUT you can hear the picking and it doesn't cloud up the mix like a more modern digital sound. Line 6 pod pro for the clean stuff. Bass is direct through a Summitt DI box and a Drawmer 1969 Mercenary Edition tube pre/comp. All tracked into Steinberg's Nuendo (1.62). Randy Black, I am sure, will rock as will the others. If all goes well, Dave is recording his tracks this month and into November while Randy lays down drums in mid-November. (I used my old trusted Alesis sr16 drum computer to write with so we use that “perfect” drum track to play the other instruments tight and then Randy plays along to the “perfectly tight” finished guitar/bass tracks!) Just trying to see if we can pull off Andy Sneap or someone of his talent to mix the CD; will let you know soon. If I have to do it, it will still rock but might take a bit longer for the CD to get done. I need a serious break after the recording process is done before I could mix my own material! Hopefully we will announce a late March release date soon. Touring to follow, likely April/May and later. First things first; KICK BUTT in the studio like I/we haven't done for years. Jeff Waters.”