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Rating:
1997. A bad year for Jeff Waters and for the metal scene in general, especially thrash.
What many define as a "decline" for Annihilator had already been underway for some time (some say since "Set The World On Fire," others from "King Of The Kill"), but being a die-hard fan, I never really perceived this creative and qualitative drop that much, partly because, after all, it was these changes in style and line-up that led me to become passionate about the Canadian band.
This is almost unanimously considered their worst work, and in some respects, it is true, but like any Annihilator album, it conceals real gems that I don't think it’s fair to belittle with such superficiality.
Take, for example, songs like "Sexecution", with a very suggestive drum intro that partly recalls the more recent "Betrayed", or "No Love" with its driving rhythm and very catchy chorus.
Both are characterized by the use of electronic sounds and drum machine (like most of the tracks), which ultimately are the main reasons for the album’s failure with the fans, who opposed such daring experimentations.
And it is precisely for this reason that I decided to review "Remains"...
I would like you not to stop at common thoughts and listen to this album carefully, without prejudice, not as metalheads but simply as lovers of good music.
Let yourselves be carried away by Jeff's genius and his compositional and performance skill, traveling from the modern and electronic sounds of the first part of the album to the simpler and more immediate ones of the second ("Humans Remains" and "Dead Wrong"), which vaguely hint at songs from Metallica's Load era, then moving to more typically thrash songs, complicated and extremely engaging ("I Want" and especially "Tricks and Traps" and "Reaction"), which will surely satisfy even longtime fans, and finally reaching the calm and very inspired atmospheres that Waters has always accustomed us to ("Wind" and the mysterious closing instrumental "Bastiage").
An album, therefore, that despite presenting some objective declines, has countless peaks of creativity, originality, and good taste, which have never been appreciated, not even by Waters himself, who recently gave it a 5.5/10, but honestly, I believe he doesn’t really think so...
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Murder (04:27)
Six feet under
no longer alive
this is your destiny
caise I have arrived
I am not a nightmare
I am disease
and I'll bring society
to its' knees
murder the world
I was born to murder the world
the fools and the innocent
they're all the same
to me, I thrive on
pleasure and pain
it's not war of attrition
I never lose the games
feel the grand invasion
feasting in the veins
I was born to murder the world
your strength devoured
just wither away
'til the final hour
the battle is won
march to the beat
I am the plague, invincible
that you can't defeat
I was born to murder the world
02 Sexecution (04:34)
I've heard alot about you
and I've heard all about your disease
well they say you're an animal
with a rabid desire to please
I'm on the hunt, you're on the prowl
do you wanna do the time
come on, we got nothing to lose
let's commit the crime
I want your flesh
sexecution
so the feeling is mutual
the hunger's gonna turn into a feast
got to cool the fire, control desire
it's time to unleash the beast
I wanna sex you up, sex you down
I wanna do it all over and all around
Russian roulette at a hundred degrees
I don't wanna die
but you sure can please
I want your flesh
sexecution
now that it's over,
the temperature falls
reality begins to rise
what have I done, under the gun
never should've rolled the dice
how do you feel, miss sex appeal
have you played this game before
a nail in the coffin, a bullet to the head
take the chance and wind up dead
I want your flesh
sexecution
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