Never, Neverland

Never, Neverland is the second album on which Annihilator, with angular riffs and urgent rhythm at its core, digs more multifacetedly and deeply into the aggression of thrash metal. It further refines the technical guitar work and structural beauty shown on the debut Alice in Hell. It deftly connects sharp chopping and dizzyingly changing developments to surprisingly songcraft-filled hooks, uniting outstanding technique and immediate impact at a high level. Coburn Pharr handled the vocals. From the catchy drive of the opener “The Fun Palace” and the aggression of “Stonewall” to the drama of the title track “Never, Neverland,” the songs, while complex, never lose sure hooks, while cuts like “Road to Ruin” and “Kraf Dinner” convey the band’s varied appeal. Its appeal is subliming the musicality into a more polished form while inheriting the debut’s impact. Jeff Waters’s outstanding songwriting and guitar technique fill the whole. Still highly praised as one of the early masterpieces of technical thrash metal, it is a fulfilling masterpiece — one of the band’s finest.