Review by Ben for Annihilator - Never, Neverland (1990)

While I love Alice in Hell, I've found a lot of what Annihilator have to offer to be a bit too cheesy for my liking. Their second release is kind of an in-between one for me. Some tracks are killer, in particular Phantasmagoria, I Am in Command and to a lesser extent Sixes and Sevens and Reduced to Ash. But there are some dodgy tracks on here that raise their head when the band decide not to take things very seriously. Kraf Dinner, Road to Ruin and parts of Never, Neverland are a bit crap in my opinion. Just about all those songs are saved by awesome guitar work by Jeff Waters but I can't ignore the induced cringing they cause me.

Even with these tracks, there's something highly entertaining about this album and when Annihilator are on song, they are awesome. The downward spiral after excellent debut had well and truly begun at this point but I think it would be unfair to consider this album as a failure. The failures would arrive soon enough.