Annihilator - Alice In Hell (1989 Thrash)

Annihilator - Alice In Hell


Before the unwanted power metal vibes, the silly lyrics of something like Never, Neverland, or the utter failure of their later works, Annihilator was an incredibly promising thrash band, threatening to blow the big three out of the water. With the stellar line up of relatively unknowns, and guitarist Jeff Waters, this album is one of the standing triumphs of what thrash should have, and could have been.
The CD starts off with your staple acoustic intro, and due to this you might think that this album is your standard thrash debut: But you'd be wrong. After a short acoustic intro, the song Alison Hell starts off, with some of the most memorable riffs in my knowledge. Randy Rampage pulls out some insane vocals here. Truth be told, he's not an incredible thrash vocalist, nor the most original, but the quality of riffage here is such that his in your face style of thrash vocals fit the mood perfectly.
Welcome To Your Death (WTYD) is your standard fast thrasher, again, with memorable riffs and insane work by the rhythm section. The next song, Wicked Mystic, is more of the same, almost sounding like they're playing WTYD backwards to you. Next up is Burns Like A Buzzsaw Blade, with a headbanging classic heavy metal sounding intro, that then goes into an utterly brutal song about rape. Word Salad was the least memorable song on the album for me, but is still pretty good. The album wraps up with two stellar thrashers by the name of Ligeia and Human Insecticide, the latter being nearly the best song on the album.
All in all, this is one of my favorite albums, and if you like thrash, or heavy metal at all for that matter, you need to check out this album. Annihilator's Alice In Hell has stood the test of time, and due to a mix of instantly likeable songs and brutal composition, will continue to stand on it's own as the best work of the Annihilator discography.



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