Description

Remains will be always remembered (or probably it won’t) as the most bizarre Annihilator record ever. And it was a mistake from Jeff Waters to use the identity of Annihilator, as he admitted lately. Yes, he did the same before. For example, in the debut Alice In Hell he took the role of guitarist, song-writer and bassist. Same with King of The Kill, but this time he became the singer too. Refresh The Demon was a similar release, although I’d swear that the drum parts were programmed again (or it was really Randy Black…?). But in Remains he got probably too far, because only Mr.Waters himself appears in the credits. But this time it didn’t really work. Yeah the boy can sing, play all guitar parts, also bass but he always needed a drummer, since the old times and the demos with Paul Malek. This time he uses a drum machine, and that makes the sound get kinda fake, overproduced, cold and ehm robotic. On other hand, the original thrash is gone too, for a long while as you can check in ‘Never’, ‘Dead Wrong’ or ‘Human Remains’. I admit Jeff still sounds heavy, aggressive and technical, but the music direction changes alot since ‘Never Neverland’ or ‘Refresh The Demon’. In fact, it’s hard to describe briefly the sound of Remains, I would label it as something similar to groove metal, modern (crappy) thrash, with a whole bunch of guitar effects that make the result get even more experimental and strange. But hey, as I said there’s still a little little bit of Jeff’s heavy artillery: raw guitar riffs, fine solos, his amusing voice and, of course, the always efficient but sometimes funny and ridiculous lyrics. If you don’t believe me check ‘Sexecution’ or ‘No Love’ (whose titles say it all), the melodic ‘Wind’ or, in my opinion, the few fine moments of the record: ‘Murder’, ‘Tricks And Traps’ or ‘Reaction’. And of course, if you have the chance to get the reissued cd of remains just skip ‘It’s You’, because it’s a cheesy worthless ballad that you’d better forget about. So, I personally don’t get really (completely) disappointed with this record but it’s so different from the original thrash of the band. 2002 remastered re-issue with 2 bonus tracks, liner notes, unseen photos Track listing: 1. Murder 2. Sexecution 3. No Love 4. Never 5. Human Remains 6. Dead Wrong 7. Wind 8. Tricks And Traps 9. I Want 10. Reaction 11. Bastiage 12. Its You 13. Words From Jeff Waters