Not So Demented

If there’s one thing time can do to a career, it’s wash it out. In certain situations the process of time totally works out, like with a fine wine or faded band tees that end up looking vintage, but when it comes to music, it doesn’t always get better with age. For old school Canadian thrash band Annihilator, the taste notes they’re giving out now are pretty acquired.

Last original member standing Jeff Waters has definitely made a métier out of the groups works. Annihilator has kind of always been a revolving sushi train of participating members dishing out raw sounds, but seeing as times and styles have kind of changed, Waters brought in a new school of younger musicians for their newest album For the Demented. While the production of the album gives the obvious level of enjoyment had during the recording process, what isn’t obvious is whether For the Demented was really necessary to begin with.

The most major way this is given away is in Waters’ decision to return to the lead, vocally. In the past the vocal position has been filled by a rotating array of leaders, most recently Dave Padden. But as with 2015’s Suicide Society, Waters’ attempts at striking vocals fall fairly short. This can be noticed during certain instances in all 10 tracks, but the album’s title track and the somewhat powerless power ballad “Pieces of You” are on a whole other level of cringeworthy.

Even worse than poor lyrical delivery are poor lyrics in general, and there are a couple tracks on For the Demented that are maddening in their lazy-seeming simplicity. “The Way” coasts on a pop punk rhythm as Waters sighs out “I don’t care what the people say / I gotta do it my own way / ‘Cause that’s the way I like it” as the chorus, as if that’s going to leave any sort of impact. “Not All There” is slightly better, but not by that much. The final track provides “Focusing intensely on things that interest me / For everything else is scrambled apologies” as one of its closing lines, which isn’t much to really stew on.

Not all of For the Demented is bad, though. Aside from Waters’ incredible shredding throughout, his most recent choice of younger musicians to fill in the blanks was integral to the album’s strong production. This is the first album for drummer Fabio Alessandri, whose blast beats on “Phantom Asylum” are a highlight, and bassist Rich Hinks, so lended his hand in co-writing, co-producing and co-engineering the album. Annihilator always has musical tinges of other classics like Metallica and Anthrax, but with Hinks’s contributions the elements are even more prevalent.

Seeing as For the Demented is Annihilator’s 16th album, credit has to be given where credit is due. It isn’t necessarily going to ring in any new fans for the band and it may not even keep some of the ones they’ve had for the last two decades, but it’s the type of album that could be expected from a band that’s been doing this for so long and that could be good or bad, depending on who you ask.