Description

‘Waking The Fury’ is the second and unfortunately last Annihilator studio album with vocalist Joe Comeau. The first offering, 2001's ‘Carnival Diablos’ was better than any of the Annihilator albums of the 90's where Jeff Waters was singing, and Comeau proved to be an excellent frontman. ‘Waking The Fury’ takes a different direction in terms of sound. ‘Carnival Diablos’ had more variety, which was great, but this record is faster and more aggressive. It could possibly be one of Annihilator's fastest records overall, maybe the fastest. There is yet another line-up change here. Randy Black returns to the drum kit, replacing original drummer Ray Hartmann, and Curran Murphy replaces Dave Scott Davis on rhythm guitar. However, bassist Russ Bergquist remains. Naturally, Jeff Waters is the primary song-writer, but Comeau, like in Carnival Diablos, also contributes some lyrics here too. When first listening to Waking The Fury, you'll probably notice the fuzzy guitar tone throughout. It may put you off…it certainly put me off to start with but after a few listens, it soon grew on me. Even so, a sharper tone with a bit more 'crunch' would've been better. This is however, one of few flaws that the album actually has, and if the weird tone doesn't bother you, or it actually grabs you, the album is a lot more enjoyable to listen to. Every song on here is packed with pure technical speed that you'd expect to come from Waters. Joe Comeau does give a slightly better performance on his first effort, but is still an extremely impressive singer on this album too. It's a shame that these were the only 2 studio efforts he sang on. This and Carnival Diablos are easily the best Annihilator studio albums so fair during the 2000's, and all else that Waters has followed with so far since, just isn't up to the standards of these 2 albums. Apart from the 'fuzzed up' guitar tone, it's quite hard to fault Waking The Fury. It's a superb speed metal album and you even get 2 bonus tracks: a radio edit of 'Nothing To Me' and a live version of 'Shallow Grave'. As well as this album though, Carnival Diablos is also definitely worth listening to. Track listing: 1. Ultra Motion 2. Torn 3. My Precious Lunatic Asylum 4. Striker 5. Ritual 6. Prime-Time Killing 7. The Blackest Day 8. Nothing To Me 9. Fire Power 10. Cold Blooded 11. Shallow Grave-live 12. Nothing To Me-radio edit