Feast

Feast is a thrash-metal work Annihilator carefully builds around sharp, biting riffs, tension-filled rhythm and technical guitar work. In fast songs it pushes through in one stroke, and in mid-tempo songs it effectively lowers the riffs’ weight, creating rich rise and fall and sure dynamics across the whole album. Jeff Waters’s outstanding guitar drives the whole. Even where high playing technique is foregrounded, what powerfully moves the songs is character-rich riffs and undulating groove. On which aggressive fierceness and an accessible, organized construction are united at a high level, it is a guitar-led record in Annihilator’s manner. Dave Padden’s vocals firmly support that world. Its appeal is that, without drowning in mere flashy technique, it values above all the force of the riffs and the strength of the songs. Even as veterans, their sharp thrash spirit and sure songwriting have not dimmed at all. Letting you savor technique and aggression in good balance, it is a powerful, fulfilling technical-thrash work — Waters’s skill shining.