Review by Morpheus Kitami for Annihilator - Alice in Hell (1989)

I've never really gotten Annihilator. They're not a bad band, they're not a Meliah Rage tier band, where where they're just sort of there. It's just in the years since I first listened to their albums I rarely ever get the urge to revisit them. I remember that the only consistent member of the band is guitarist and occasional singer Jeff Waters, and this is generally the most liked album they released.
For a technical thrash band, they sure don't sound like it. I mean, it's bassy, quite a few riffs on some songs, but for the most part it just sounds like a mundane thrash album. Jeff Waters seems like he's trying to have a more jazzy kind of solo style than you typically get at times with thrash. I think, anyway, it doesn't really sound like anything I've heard from a jazz album but that could just be because the albums I listen to don't mesh with what Waters heard.
The album flows weirdly. The intro track is a non-metal instrumental, followed by a song with an intro that isn't terribly metal either. This is something of a theme, the technical and even thrash aspects of the album feel like something of an informed genre, as often the way the songs go off has more in line with prog. One thing is for certain, with this track order the band wanted to get across that this isn't your typical thrash album. Which does work...until the album becomes something of a typical thrash album.
The vocals are similarly hard to pin down. On a basic level, he's a refugee from a USPM band, maybe a bit more on the thrashy side. Apparently he did more with punk bands than with metal ones. He can do a few interesting tricks, but mostly seems to stick to a not really USPM kind of vocal style, which isn't necessarily bad, but contributes to how this album feels out of whack. Not helping are somewhat limp lyrics concerning abuse and a ill-chosen Poe tale.
That's all not to say that this is a bad album, merely that Alice in Hell doesn't really know what it wants to do. It feels too ingrained in normal thrash to make much use of Waters's abilities, but too out of normal thrash to be a straight thrasher. The music is all good, just with an awkward track listing.