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Album Review: Annihilator – Criteria For A Black Widow / Carnival Diablos

Reviewed by Gareth Pugh

It’s been six years since Canadian veterans Annihilator released their last studio album, and while the band are still performing live, in the studio though, main man, and only constant member, Jeff Waters has appeared to put the band on hold while he concentrates on his less metal and more rock-oriented side-project American Kaos, so while we wait, perhaps indefinitely, for new material, the band has launched a major catalogue reissue series via earMUSIC, and following on from remastered editions of King Of The Kill (1994), Refresh The Demon (1996), and Remains (1997) from last year comes new updated versions of Criteria For A Black Widow (1999) and Carnival Diablos (2001).

Criteria for a Black Widow came after the three albums that were effectively Jeff Waters solo albums, with Jeff writing all the material as well as singing and playing all the instruments bar the drums. So after a difficult year in 1998, where Jeff went through a messy divorce and a custody battle for his children (which he won) he ended up going to a Slayer concert which ended up inspiring him to write the next Annihilator album, but instead of continuing down the solo route, he decided to get a real band together, and after recruiting original drummer Ray Hartmann, and on Ray’s suggestion, Jeff decided to try a ‘reunion’ line-up, and contacted Randy Rampage (RIP) the singer from the debut album “Alice in Hell”, who gladly accepted the invitation to rejoin, he also asked his friend and original Annihilator vocalist John Bates to contribute to the lyrics as he had done previously. The album recording was completed as this trio (long term fans will know that Jeff has performed all the guitar and bass tracks on nearly every album) but guitarist Dave Davies did rejoin for the subsequent tour along with new recruit; bassist Russell Berquist.

So, onto the album itself, and despite this being a reunion line-up, musically it bears only a passing resemblance to the sound of the debut, don’t worry, it’s still heavy, in fact in many ways it is heavier, but there are more groove influences and a more compressed and modern production, the album, apart from the drums, was mainly recorded at Watersound studios, in other words Jeff’s spare bedroom. Starting with the brutal ‘Bloodbath’ it’s easy to hear the Slayer influence, as the song is as fast and aggressive as the band had ever been previously, matching even ‘Human Insecticide’ for pace, and follow it up with the equally violent and rapid ‘Back to the Palace’, which is a sequel of sorts to ‘The Fun Palace’, check out that intro riff, from sophomore album “Never, Neverland” with plenty of fun lyrical references to past songs. ‘Punctured’ is slower with more groove, a more modern sounding song with some Pantera vibes. The title-track is bizarre in a way only Annihilator can be, and bizarre doesn’t necessarily mean good, a heavily bass driven song with a spoken verse, it has to be heard to be believed!

The rest of the album though is much improved, ‘Nothing Left’ is a mid-paced old school thrasher, and ‘Double Dare’ has more riffs and changes than you can shake a stick at. The album proper finishes with two track, firstly the original title-track before the record company insisted on changing it, the preposterously titled ‘Sonic Homicide’ an old, reworked demo track from the early days, ‘Powerdrain’ which is available on the expanded ‘Alice in Hell’ CD, which musically is excellent and a real throwback, with super-fast down picked riffing, but ignore the lyrics, which are laugh out loud funny, before the gentle acoustic instrumental ‘Mending’ ends the original track listing, this new re-release adds several demo tracks with Jeff himself performing the vocals.