Label: UDR
Genre: Heavy Metal
Release Date EU: January 21st, 2017
Tracklist:
Unplugged: The Watersound Studios Sessions
- Sounds Good To Me
- Bad Child
- Innocent Eyes
- Snake In The Grass
- Fantastic Things
- Holding On
- Stonewall
- In The Blood
- Crystal Ann
- Phoenix Rising
Live At The Bang Your Head!!! Festival
- King Of The Kill
- No Way Out
- Creepin’ Again
- Set The World On Fire
- W.T.Y.D. (Welcome To Your Death)
- Never, Neverland
- Bliss
- Second To None
- Refresh The Demon
- Alison Hell
- Phantasmagoria
- Crystal Ann
- Phoenix Rising
The title of Annihilator’s newest release, “Triple Threat”, gives a pretty good idea of what to expect – at last when it comes to ‘triple’. Of course this new output of Canadian metal heroes isn’t a threat. Actually it’s a pure pleasure to listen to what this package comes with.
“Triple Threat” is more than just a disc, it’s a 3-disc package that comes with a lot of Annihilator. It shows Jeff Waters and his band in various ways. First of all it’s an acoustic disc that asks for attention. Triggered by Van Halen’s 4-tracks unplugged add-on for “A Different Kind of Truth” Canadian guitar wizard Jeff Waters made his longtime wish true. The axeman brought together some musicians, Aaron Homma and Rich Hinks from Annihilator plus longtime friends Marc LaFrance and Pat Robillard, for recording this acoustic album in early summer 2016.
The result is an excellent acoustic set of great Annihilator songs, covering mainly the post “Never, Neverland” era. After the first two crushing records it was the “World on Fire” record that opened up a bit more, including songs like “Phoenix Rising” with a mainly silent and very melodic approach.
Each of the songs was recorded live and in one go. This means that there aren’t any overdubs included which gives the tunes a very authentic and real expression. Waters described this as one of the biggest challenges since every time somebody did a mistake the recording needed to be restarted.
The second disc features a live show – fully plugged-in. The band filmed and recorded the show at the German Bang Your Head open air in 2016. There were two shows that have been potential candidates for being taped. In the end it was the German shows since the BYH team planned anyhow to film the Twisted Sister show and it was an excellent opportunity to combine efforts – great as a test run for the filming crew and great for Annihilator of recording their shows professionally for a good price tag. A typical win-win situation. When it comes to the setlist there’s nothing to complain about. Milestones from the early days like the awesome “Alice in Hell” have been played as well and new smashers such as “No Way Out”.
“Triple Threat” is a well-chosen package, presenting the band in various ways,and including some behind the scene clips. Annihilator was always a band that used a wider approach and this package documents it in a great way.
Reviewer: Markus Wiedenmann
Rating: 8/10
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