ANNIHILATOR Mainman Talks New Studio Album, Vocalist Changes, JEFF HANNEMAN

Anthony Morgan of Metal Forces recently conducted an interview with ANNIHILATOR mainman Jeff Waters. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On new ANNIHILATOR studio album, "Feast":

Jeff: "'Feast' has a bit more diversity. I've even stepped up the guitar playing as far as ability. I've stepped it up even further, because I keep pushing myself to do it for some strange reason. I don't know why, but I just really pushed myself on the guitar this time. What else? Again, it's got a bit of diversity. It's got a little funky stuff in some of the stuff, it's got a ballad, it's got some anger, and it's got some thrash metal or whatever. It seems to have a lot of little, neat, catchy hooks, even though the music is kind of heavy. I don't know. It's hard to really describe it. An ANNIHILATOR record is either gonna be a better one than last time, similar, or not as good. It's almost like you've just gotta form your own opinion. You just let the album go, and let the label, the press, and the fans do what they like or don't like. We're kind of excited about this one, though. We've got a good feeling here, but we'll see what happens."

On leaving Earache Records in Europe:

Jeff: "There were basically just disagreements on a few things — just basically contractual, legal things. Things that were in the contract that were… Yeah, that's about all I can say about that one. More legal things, just disagreements on what it says in there. We basically all decided that we were not gonna work together any more, and that took a while to resolve. It took a couple of years to sort that out, but we've moved on. That's about it."

On ANNIHILATOR being regarded as a solo project as opposed to a group:

Jeff: "I think up to around 2005, it was. I think that's when Dave [Padden, guitar/vocals] sort of stepped in, and for some reason I naturally started calling him or e-mailing him, asking questions about what he thinks. That was the first step, and it just evolved into where it feels like it's his band too in a way. I mean, come on. I write all of the music, and I don't need him to write lyrics. I could just write them all by myself, and produce, mix, master, and engineer the record, and do the stuff. Clearly, it's still my baby and I could just do the whole bloody thing myself, but he's such an important part of the band right now to me, and now finally to a lot of fans. It's just more of a partnership in the way we tour, and in the way we rock."

On him and ANNIHILATOR being comparable to Dave Mustaine and MEGADETH:

Jeff: "I guess that I let him [Dave Padden] in a lot more than maybe Dave Mustaine lets other guys in, though. But remember, I was the same… Hey, there is a similarity though with Dave and I. Dave and I think the same way; it's our baby, it's our band, and we hire the other people. The only small difference is that Dave Padden has just sort of crept into this position of being more of a partner now, that's all."

On ANNIHILATOR changing vocalists through the years:

Jeff: "Since it was never really a full band — an equal-band kind of thing — I ended up looking for…. The first singer, for example. Randy Rampage, to be specific. He was perfect for the band and just perfect for 'Alice In Hell' [September 1989], but he actually quit the band because he had a job back in Vancouver. We were on a tour with TESTAMENT in 1989, but near the end of the tour, Randy Rampage said that he was leaving the tour because he was gonna lose his job back in Vancouver. We tried, and Roadrunner [ANNIHILATOR's record label at the time] tried, and managers tried to keep him. We tried to basically pay him more money to do whatever we had to do to keep him, but he left.

"I was stuck after a big album called 'Alice In Hell' trying to find a singer, so I got the second singer called Coburn Pharr. We did a bigger album called 'Never, Neverland' [September 1990], but then basically there was just too much partying going on. It was just craziness, and when you're doing a bunch of stuff that you shouldn't be doing, you kind of don't act reasonable. When you don't act reasonable, you cause problems, and so he had to leave the band. We then got a third guy for the third record 'Set The World On Fire' [August 1993], but he went after that album. He went back home and started a family, because that's what he wanted to do. On the fourth one, I sang, and I sang for two records after that. I couldn't fire myself for a while. It was just more bad luck, but at the same time it was good luck because those singers all were very, very important reasons why those first four ANNIHILATOR albums were very special."

On late SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman:

Jeff: "I met him, but I never knew him. I met him a few times at concerts and stuff, but I never had any discussions with him. I've had more discussions with Kerry King [SLAYER guitarist]. When Jeff passed, it's hard to explain, because I didn't know him personally. I was just grieving from the perspective of his family, his bandmembers, and his management, that people close to him must've been really hurting. I was sad for them, but for me, it was sad in the sense that I realized really quickly how big of an influence he specifically had — and Kerry King, of course. He had an influence on me as a teenager listening to the 'Haunting The Chapel' EP [June 1984]. 'Chemical Warfare', 'Chapter Of Sin', and all of these great, great early SLAYER songs, and then on to, of course, all of the other great albums like 'Reign In Blood' [October 1986] and everything. Yeah though, he was a huge part of the whole metal and thrash/punk movement."

Read the entire interview at Metal Forces.