Interview with vocalist Dave Padden

INTERVIEW BY ARTO LEHTINEN AND MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

Long time Canadian thrash metal icons, Annihilator, are known for being the soul and mind of the guitar wizard Jeff Waters who has navigated the band throughout the years. However, the guitarist/vocalist Dave Padden has become an essential part of the Annihilator camp within these past seven – eight years. Annihilator has visited Finland a couple of times before as a support for Judas Priest in 1991 and Trivium a few years back. It was clearly time for them to have the headliner slot here. The Tavastia club was entirely packed when Waters and company got on the stage. Before the four piece thrashers stormed onto the stage to wake the fury, we had the privilege of having a chat with the vocalist of Annihilator Dave Padden who talked about the on-going tour, the re-issued albums, and several other interesting issues about the mighty Annihilator!

Read the rest of this entry »

ANNIHILATOR

THE 22nd of OCTOBER

 CLUB TAVASTIA, HELSINKI

FINLAND 

REVIEW BY ARTO LEHTINEN AND MARKO SYRJÄLÄ

The long running Canadian thrash metal veteran Annihilator have visited Finland a couple of times before. Their first visit happened back in 1991 as support for Judas Priest and Pantera, who were largely still an unknown act at that time. Their second visit was a couple of years ago when the band supported Trivium at the sold out The House of Culture. Therefore, it was about time for Jeff Waters and company to have a headlining show of their own. The timing was nothing but perfect when over 600 metalheads crawled to the show on a Friday night.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jeff Waters of ANNIHILATOR

Interview by Shaq

Back in December I had the opportunity to spend some time talking to metal legend Jeff Waters about everything from the good ol’ days to today, from spandex to the age of the internet and everything in between.  After years of no recognition in his home continent, Annihilator’s latest record, simply titled METAL, is being given a legitimate North American release. 

Read the rest of this entry »

ANNIHILATOR – JEFF WATERS

Written by Simon Lukic

Transcription by Claudia

Live pics by Marko Syrjala

I’ve been an Annhilator fan since 1989, the day I purchased ALICE IN HELL. Throughout the many changes in both personal and style Jeff Waters has remained a constant source of inspiration and is to this day my favorite guitar player. With that said, I’ve been waiting a very long time to interview Jeff and my opportunity finally arrived with the release of Annihilator’s latest effort METAL. My expectations were high and they were easily met and then some with Jeff answering my questions with a lot of enthusiasm and honesty. I had a blast and I hope that you enjoy this interview as much as I do. 

Read the rest of this entry »

JEFF WATERS

INTERVIEW AND LIVE PICTURES BY MARKO SYRJALA

TRANSCRPTION BY NEIL BATTY

Canadian thrash band Annihilator is the lifework of guitarist Jeff Waters, who founded the band in Vancouver in 1984. It took almost five years and numerous line up changes before band released their 1989 debut, ALICE IN HELL, which was an unqualified triumph and epitomized the state of the art in terms of thinking man’s thrash metal in every aspect. Album was a success but more changes followed. Original singer Randy Rampage decided to leave and he was then replaced by Coburn Pharr who recorded album NEVER NEVERLAND with the band. Album was again very successful and band did a lot of touring across the world with such names as Judas Priest. Third album SET THE WORLD ON FIRE was released in 1993 with Wayne Darley being the only remaining member alongside with Jeff Waters himself. That album was a way different compared to older albums, it was much more oriented into pop/rock but it still did quite well during the time when grunge invasion was about to come. In 1994 band lost their record contract and they broke up but it wasn’t too long when Annihilator resurfaced with another line up. Band released a series of albums: KING OF THE KILL, REFRESH THE DEMON and REMAINS where Jeff handled vocal duties by himself while but Annihilator never again enjoyed anything similar to their original success � despite Water’s’ retreat to thrashier terrain. In 1999 band did another attempt to re-find their glory days when they re-united with their original singer Randy Rampage. Band released album CRITERIA FOR A BLACK WIDOW but reunion didn’t last too long until Randy was out again because of his drug and alcohol problems. It was time of another singer and then Joe Comeau stepped in. Annihilator released two high quality albums CARNIVAL DIABLOS and WAKING THE FURY with Joe before he was surprisingly out after the release of live album DOUBLE LIVE ANNILIATION in 2003. Canadian native Dave Padden replaced Comeau and he�s been in the band since then. Annihilator has lived though many ups and downs in their career but what�s most important, band has always survived and now they�re once again back with their 12�Th studio release called �Metal�. Band visited in Finland, for the first time in sixteen years, on last April while they were on tour as a special guest for U.S band. I had an opportunity to sit down with Jeff Waters in Helsinki before their show in House of Culture and here are the results of our lengthy discussion� ENJOY! 

Read the rest of this entry »

JEFF WATERS of ANNIHILATOR
Interviewed on December 9th, 1997 by EvilG

Jeff Waters is the lead guitarist and vocalist (since 1994) for Canada?s best metal band ANNIHILATOR. Recently I was lucky enough to ask Jeff a few questions about the band and the new release “Remains.”

Read the rest of this entry »