Jeff Waters founded Annihilator in 1984 in Vancouver and went on to become a heavy hitter in the international thrash metal scene, but it’s been 24 years since the band did a full Canadian tour. Waters is changing that now, though, bringing Annihilator through Canada, including a stop in Victoria.
Waters is proud to have stood the enduring test of time in the Canadian music industry, a feat that he says was not easy.
“The industry basically lost interest around ’92 and ’93 and venues were shutting down,” he says.
But South America and—especially—Europe “didn’t let go of us,” says Waters. When he tried to get his foot back in the door years later, Waters says labels wouldn’t take him in the face of new bands with fresh sounds. But he knew Annihilator still had value and purpose, so he found the businessman inside the musician and began self-promoting.
“Our sound is basically a collection of ’80s thrash and heavy metal, so it’s not exactly a groundbreaking style,” he says. “It was a bit of a shock for me, but I just kind of said, ‘Oh well; I’m doing well in other places.’ Someone close to me said, ‘Why don’t you just phone the clubs and do your own tour?’ Instantly, every club was like, ‘Okay.’”
Since then, things have been on the up-and-up for Waters. Their latest album, 2015’s Suicide Society, was nominated for a 2017 Juno in the Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year category; Waters says that, while this made him smile, he also felt mixed emotions, because he says the album isn’t even one of their five best.
“Some of our best albums have been done over the last 20, 25 years and not been even discussed or mentioned,” he says. “I knew Suicide Society was a decent record, but by no means would I call that one of our best albums. I found it strange because we haven’t done a tour here, but it’s an honour no matter how you look at it.”
The band has gone through many changes since their debut album, 1989’s Alice in Hell. Waters describes the early years as the band going from “the basement to the fancy tour bus to the nice first-class flights.”
“I worked very hard, but I didn’t have to go through the hell most bands would have to go through for years to get it going,” says Waters, who credits his success to taking band matters into his own hands.
But with success came personal struggles with alcohol, although Waters has now been clean and sober since 1999.
“I said, ‘I just can’t do this anymore; this is ridiculous,’” he says. “It was clearly an addiction. I just cold-turkeyed it in ’99. I had no idea that alcohol withdrawal could be as brutal and as dangerous as it was when you stop cold turkey after being a real drinker, so I literally almost had a heart attack in the hospital. I had no clue on day two of cold turkey why it looked like there was a moth or a butterfly in my shirt, and I realized it was my heart flying. It was going about 160 beats a minute. The scare of almost having a heart attack was actually the best psychological thing I could do for not starting ever again.”
Annihilator
Tuesday, June 13
$30, Distrikt
strathconahotel.com/venue/district