Annihilator Interview

Date: October 31, 2015

Mike interviews Jeff Waters of Annihilator on the bands history touring and more.

A link to the full interview can be found here!

Are they going to tour Anytime soon in North America

"The Number one question I get in trouble for all the time, I always say “ I think its the year and it never happens” We’ve toured here for a first record in our long career 1989 to 1993, and then it wasn’t just the US it was also Canada, our home country that we literally got thrown out. With everyone else with the name metal in their bio at the time. The quote from the label at the time was “We like you, we like your stuff, we like your band Jeff but, unless you are willing to change your name and the sound to the style of bands like Pantera, Selputura, or Biohazard, where going to have to let you go” And that was in 93. I panicked for a short while and got very lucky that Japan and Especially Europe it never left. It was always the 80’s metal scene there and its bigger every time we do a record now. I’m happy that i can say that say that I’m not bitter about not being able to get in to my own country or the States. But I’m sure I would be different if Europe hadn’t embraced us…"

 

"We tried to get back here of course, This was in 93 and for those who were around literally 98% of metal bands got thrown off the label and clubs were not booking metal bands and were booking grunge bands and that type of music was so big and it was time for metal to go away from how we knew it in the 80’s. And by the time I realized that its great that I have Europe and Japan there and all of these years pass by and metal comes back in North America, slowly but surely. I was like, its time to get the band back together, and it didn’t work. It was an instant reality check, the Answers I was getting “Congrats on your continued success overseas, we like what your doing but your not a young band with a new sound any more” we were “an older band” Like Annihilator wasn’t a new fresh sound when we came out in 89 we ere really mesh of heavy metal with trash metal, influence by all the stuff i liked as a teenager…"

Posted in: WSOU, WSOU Exclusive, Interviews, Metal