Never, Neverland

by

Annihilator

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Annihilator was a metal band lead by guitar virtuoso Jeff Waters. He wrote or co-wrote every track on this album and proves a very creative, intelligent lyricist. Waters took a lot of care in these songs and even includes the stories behind the songs. Some examples: the title track is about a girl confined to a room by a fanatically overprotective grandmother after the girl looked at a boy in a grocery store; "Sixes and Sevens" comes from the British phrase for disorder; "Road to Ruin" is about a drunk driver ("impaired security at ninety miles an hour"); "Kraf Dinner" is about just what the title states without risking copyright infringes ("a cheddar cheese heart attack"); "Stonewall" was written after Waters moved to Vancouver and discovered the depressing reality of chemical damage to a river.

The music is also very creative. The guitar in "Never, Neverland" (not affiliated with Michael Jackson's estate) is beautiful (not unlike "Crystal Ann" from their debut album) and it incorporates a story-telling vocal. Things get silly, though, when they get to the defensive part: "Get back, back! Just leave us all alone! Take that and that! I'll break your every bone!" (can you imagine a little girl yelling this?). Some of the songs are preachy, especially "Stonewall" ("the power of corporations, spewing chemicals into the air. Fines are imposed to discourage, but what's a dime to a millionaire.") Still, the album rocks with, of course, excellent guitar. The music gets more thrash in the last tracks, although I find the first half of the album to be more interesting. It is also more solid than their previous album Alice in Hell.