Review by Rexorcist for Annihilator - Alice in Hell (1989)

Alice in Hell was an album I had very little interest in beforehand because Annihilator never got the rep of my favorite thrash acts.  Throughout last year, however, I checked out several of their albums.  And I don't remember why, but at the time I first heard this, I loved it.  Now that I came back to it, I can say that while it's a perfectly fine album, I don't love it the way I used to.

It all starts with the acoustic intro "Crystal Ann."  The purpose of an intro is simply to set the mood for the rest of the album, so normally they're just sound effects or a small operatic piece, so they aren't that great.  But "Crystal Ann" is a pure exercise in acoustic rhythm that simply melts the listener.  Of course, this is pretty much forsaken and screwed in the ass as soon as "Alison Hell" begins, and we've got a demonic voice singing deathly poetics alongside strong thrashing, and the weirdness of their lyrical imagery is something the musicians try to reflect with their mood and tempo-changing.  For a post-opener, this is really good, but ironically I like the intro a tiny bit more.  Next, "W.T.Y.D." begins with more speed and a highly technical riff that sounds like it belongs on Rust in Peace.  I gotta admit, I kinda want to cover this since it's so true to everything that thrash stands for, despite the fact that this emerged from a debut album.  "Wicked Mystic" continues the tempo of the previous song, which is something I'm usually against because I want more out of an album than monotony.  However, it was clearly a heavier song with a clear focus on aggression, and with that guy's fucked up voice, the song did feel just a little scary.  A speed-style solo occurs in the middle, and it's easily the best part.  That crazy dance-worthy composition is the kind of thing I would write.  "Burn Like a Buzzsaw Blade" is next, and once again we have the exact same tempo.  The key difference displayed at the beginning is the guitar riffs sounding a little more like a power metal song before going straight to the riffs.  At this point, I had practically already decided that it would take a miracle for this song to surpass the previous.  The whole song was pretty damn repetitive, with no real focus on rhythm at all.  It was pretty heavy, but a kid could've written it.  However, the solo sounded pretty psychotic and the wail at the end helped.

Sibe B starts with "Word Salad."  First, lemme say that's the worst song title I've ever heard that didn't belong to crunkcore.  I like the melodic and dark tone they go for, and despite ONCE AGAIN GOING FOR THE 130-140 BPM TEMPO, is a more complex and technical song than "Buzzsaw Blade." it was kind of a breath of fresh air.  And when the mid-section took a slower pace for the sake of mood and calming the nerves, it was yet another breath of fresh air to the point where returning to the thrash with a kick-ass solo was easy to forgive, and after the third verse we get an even better solo, one that gets really weird and twisty, as if to say, "We already wrote an incredible song, so we can play whatever we want now."  But still, what happened to the tempo changing of the post-intro?  "Alison Hell" did it, so why don't the other songs?  The next track, "Schizos," is definitely a little more speed oriented and perfectly composed, despite yet another venture into the 130-140 BPM sect to start.  But after the intro, we get a much faster riff which doesn't have a lot rhythm, unfortunately.  But just when I thought I was safe, they go back to the old one!  This wasn't what I meant by changing tempos, Annihilator.  At least they keep doing it throughout this near-instrumental with barely determinable vocals that may not have needed to be there.  Still, the song does really jam, and it's obvious that the band is having a blast playing this song.  It's one of those things you can just sense, especially with the wilder stuff like Frank Zappa albums.  That same fun presence is there.  Then "Legeia" came on, and I just gave up.  Once again, the heaviness is perfectly fitting and the production brings the metallic sound out, and the riffs themselves are pretty clever.  But otherwise, this just started out like another thrash song.  "Human Insecticide" was the finale, and it was easily the most aggressive song on a very aggressive album, so it was perfectly suitable, despite needing a little bit of work in the rhythm department.

Alice in Hell is avery heavy and pretty well-written exercise in the essentials of thrash metal, right dow to the evil laugh at the end.  And I'd say it catered to my minimum needs as a thrash fan.  However, that tempo problem really needs to be fixed.