Annihilator - Suicide Society

Published September 19 2015

*=Staff's pick	Suicide Society My Revenge Snap Creepin' Again* Narcotic Avenue* The One You Serve Break, Enter Death Scent Every Minute*

Genre	Thrash/Heavy Metal	Jeff Waters	Vocals
Tracks	9	Jeff Waters	Guitar
Running time	45 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	UDR Music	Jeff Waters	Bass
Release	September 18, 2015	Mike Harshaw	Drums
Country	Canada	-	Keyboard
Producer	Jeff Waters
Similar artists	---

After the departure of co-lead singer and guitarist Dave Padden in December last year, the band's undisputed main man Jeff Waters has, like he did in the mid-90's, returned to handle everything surrounding an album, except for Mike Harshaw playing the drums on his now second Annihilator effort. It came as a surprise to me that Padden had quit the band, and Waters waited for about 6 months to announce his former bandmate's decision, and at that point I thought it was a bit of shame that he left, because this pair of musicians had sort of improved with each release made.

Waters has with Suicide Society basically picked bit and pieces from his entire career almost and he brings forward the typical Annihilator attributes, well-known for its kind of jumping and explosive riffs and lines. It's a balanced record, comprising principally thrash metal, but still with large elements of heavy metal approaches and finally including a pair of mellow tracks too. It's not furiously aggressive, extreme or brutal at large and although it includes some new things, it's also far from being innovatory. The latter I believe to be a wise choice, since fans to this band probably want Annihilator's metal to be served in a similar package to this outcome at the end of the day.

This release is a nice effort indeed and it appeals to me in the way that Waters' records usually do and I think it places itself in a fine position in the band's now 15 record long catalogue. In all honesty, it's nevertheless a little bumpy with a pair of songs that's not really capable of coming out great, but definitely not to the extent of being obvious fillers or songs that kind of pass me by like a breeze. Suicide Society is another confident release by Canada's greatest metal export and I will possibly never stop to wonder why this band, in any of its different outfits, doesn't get more attention in the metal community.