Set the World on Fire

As steep of a dive as Set the World on Fire takes from the first two Annihilator albums, I think it's important to evaluate the world that this was being released into. Thrash metal as we knew it had really dried up, most of its royalty either disbanding or altering their sound to fit into a 90s landscape that was going Grunge, hip hop, Pantera groove metal or ducking off into more extreme territories, and to give the Canadians some credit, they always maintained at least some of the thrash and speed metal of their core sound. For whatever brief flights of adaptation Jeff Waters might take his band on, he's always been the riff-first sort of guy who is an essential anchor for the style, and Set the World on Fire is still foremost a thrash metal effort. But the writing is on the wall here in many ways...

First, the cool artwork from the first two records has been replaced by a photographic eyesore which looks like a failed attempt at mimicking Dark Angel's 3rd and 4th records. Sure, the grown up Alice has some thematic consistency with Alice in Hell and Never, Neverland, but it just doesn't present itself well, and the weird light filtering effect in the background make it look like someone scratched up the cover. This was the last Annihilator album I picked up a physical copy for, and that was only when I found a dirt cheap cassette in Boston for $3, I had already listened to the album at a friend's house and found it wanting, and I doubt I listened to that tape more than once or twice. The band was on its third singer in as many albums, Aaron Randall, and while I can't tell you that his voice is technically bad, and it made some sense after the style of the first two singers, he's got even cheesier emotes when he's barking out a lot of these lyrics, and it almost sounds like some hard rock transplant from a Skid Row or Badlands cover band crossing over into thrash metal. It can get awkward, to say the least.

Worse than either of these things, though, the songwriting had really slacked off here, as for every half decent track full of Waters' thrash riffs, you've got that 90s poisoning, sometimes in small places like the chorus of "Bats in the Belfry", others more blatant like "Snake in the Grass", which starts out like a shitty hair metal ballad and then goes for a groovy hard rock/metal like Jackyl! And then, I shit you not, this is followed up with "Phoenix Rising", a better song perhaps, but another ballad that sounds like they're trying to make a "November Rain". Cuts like "Knight Jumps Queen" the and the titular "Set the World on Fire" might possess a few dumb groove/thrash riffs, and parts of "Brain Dance" sound like it might have fit on Alice in Hell, but even then Annihilator manages to cock it all up with Randall's super cheesy vocal lines and lyrics that are arguably even worse.

If I legit took all the better moments from this album, kicked out the vocalist, brought back Randy Rampage and whittled it all down to a 2-3 track EP, Set the World on Fire might have been a worthwhile follow-up to Never, Neverland, but it's just so bloated with goofy ideas and weaksauce attempts to 'fit in'...I mean listen to the end of "Brain Dance" when the vocals turn into a circus with the whole 'frying pan into the fire' cliche, total dumpster fire that ruins the few good ideas in that track. The bottom line, is that whenever Annihilator dips its toes onto the beach of 90s lameness from the security of the thrashing ocean behind it, the band pretty much sucks. And I don't know that Waters got the memo in time, because this album marks a decades-long descent into mediocrity, so deep into the shadow of that awesome potential of the debut that they were no longer visible.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Okay, well maybe not quite, since Annihilator are still alive and kicking as a band, but this record well and truly killed any aspiration of major-label success they may have had. That said, Annihilator are something of a weird band, insofar as their renown among metal fans seemingly in no way matches their actual amount of diehard fans. I certainly wouldn't see it as a stretch to say that not that many people care too greatly for their work from King of the Kill onwards, and I think that that's largely down to this album alienating huge chunks of the fanbase after the last Annihilator album many people truly care about, Never, Neverland.

But here's the thing: Set the World on Fire is far from a bad album. The actual musical content is often overlooked in favour of the commercialisation of the band's sound, but the meat and potatoes of the sound is actually a pretty solid melodic thrash/speed metal album, with a couple of sappy ballads thrown in for good measure; generally speaking, Set the World on Fire can be divided down the middle into either a) singalongy melothrash cuts like "No Zone" and the live staple title track or b) ballads and undercooked, more overtly commercial songs (examples being "Phoenix Rising" for the former, and "The Edge" for the latter).

And that first category is precisely everything great about this album - if you're looking for the twisting, technical thrash of the first two albums, you'll certainly be left wanting, but that's okay. Instead you get a very mellow, fun listen; an album which doesn't require much concentration but has a lot of replayability due to its simpler, catchy sound (the song structures are very much mainstream rock territory). It has the same kind of appeal as Metallica's self-titled record - at the expense of the complexity of previous records, the band in question toned down the thrash and diversified their sound in an attempt for commercial success. And it kinda works here (not the commercial success part) - Waters proves himself gifted at crafting tracks which for the most part retain Annihilator's sharp riffs but add big, radio-friendly choruses to good effect - there's a reason the title track hasn't left the band's setlist since the release of the album. "No Zone" is a great example of what Set the World on Fire gets absolutely right, with the speed and immediacy of the previous albums infused with the aforementioned melodic sense via Waters' new pet singer for this album, Aaron Randall, who provides smooth, singsongy vocals. And that's pretty much a formula followed to great effect by all of the good songs on here.

The production and performances of the band members are no less than what you'd expect for an Annihilator album: polished production values with crunchy guitars and prominent bass; the instrumentalists typically on point, Jeff Waters delivering his usual guitar (and bass) pyrotechnics with aplomb, albeit less frequently than in the past. Randall handles the material pretty well, belting out the catchy vocal lines with enthusiasm, and more or less sticking to the melodic approach which Coburn Pharr executed oh so well on Never, Neverland. However, it would be remiss to talk about Randall's vocals without mentioning his infamous lisp, allegedly the result of a technical issue with the mic used to record the vocals. I won't lie, it is a little off-putting, particularly during the first couple of times listening to the album, but I don't find it so egregious that it ruins the experience of the album. Rather, I view it as a quirk of the album rather than a full-fledged flaw, in the same way that I think the production on Never, Neverland is less than perfect but it doesn't really take away from the fact that the songs are fucking amazing.

Set the World on Fire is not an album with too many faults, but without doubt the main issue here is simple consistency. The album is massively frontloaded in that it starts with arguably the three best songs here (and I'd extend that to four since I love "Snake in the Grass," though I accept that may be more personal preference than general consensus) and much of the second half of the album is eminently forgettable. Seriously, I've listened to this in full like five or six times at least and I just had to consult Wikipedia because I forgot what one of the songs on the second half was at all ("Don't Bother Me," for those keeping track at home). Everything after track four barring "Knight Jumps Queen" and "Brain Dance" feels like either a filler track Jeff Waters wrote in ten minutes to pad the runtime (which is admittedly concerning for an album that runs a mere 39 minutes) or a ballad tacked on to the album in a vain attempt to score a hit. Which is a nice segue into the second and really final major gripe I have with this record: three ballads on a ten track album is just too many. I get that there are mitigating factors - Annihilator had just got on to a major label and wanted to stay there, so these ballads were probably seen as Jeff's best shot at commercial success and therefore continued major label backing (all in vain, sadly). But still, it disrupts the flow of the album. Pick one of the three, and give us two more songs like "Knight Jumps Queen" or "Bats in the Belfry" please, Jeff.

And that's basically the crux of it - only about half of this album is any good, but the good songs here are brilliant. Any of the first four songs, plus a couple of others, can basically be listened to whenever you want to without growing tired of them, but much of the record's second half is bogged down by filler and inconsistency which weakens the experience of listening to this album in a single sitting. With that said, since the good songs here are so good, listening to this record is definitely a more than worthwhile experience all told. It's just kind of a shame that everyone hated this album when it came out, and that perception hasn't really softened in the years since its release.

I bought this cassette; it still beats me why… it’s definitely not because I’d liked the girl on the cover as for some time I thought it was Jeff Waters on it… until I looked more carefully that is. I can’t think of any other tangible reason for this unpremeditated act. I had “Alice in Hell” on side A (or B) of a worn-out Hitachi cassette, and I’d listened to “Never, Neverland” a couple of times after borrowing the tape from a friend…

in other words, I was by no means Annihilator’s most avid fan out there, and I couldn’t quite see the reason why the guy(s) caused such a stir on the metal circuit in the late-80’s/early-90’s. And yet, I did buy the album reviewed here when I saw it at the music store. I guess I was also misled by the “fiery” title, I don’t know… the truth is that this was one of the very few recordings which I listened to just once upon purchasing, then put it aside for a very long period of time, until it caught my eye one day, prompting me to give it one more try.

It’s a public secret that Roadrunner imposed their demands on Waters for this effort; the man was coerced to take a poppy, mellower direction here in view of what was going on around the metal scene at the time. Yes, he didn’t have much of a choice, even less so during those uncertain, transformational times, but even under such unpropitious circumstances it’s quite hard to exonerate him and this creation. Cause there are very few traces of elaborate technical thrashisms along the lines of the debut; the same goes for genuinely dark progressive power/thrash hybrids that made “Never, Neverland” a pretty decent follow-up. The scenery had been changed drastically with no semblances of inhalation… sorry, annihilation whatsoever in sight.

If there’s one thing that can be said in defence of this album, it’s that it steers away for the most part from the prevalent groovy/grungy/aggro vogues that were greedily devouring the metal practitioners at the time. And this could have been viewed an admirable feat if it wasn’t for the fairly tepid, mediocre material contained within which still can pass for metal for at least half the time. The title-track has a bite and verve reflected in some semi-intricate, quirky power/thrashing, but remains a most misleading introduction regardless of the energetic riffs heard on the short merry-go-rounder “No Zone”. The actual radio-friendly zone is entered with “Bats in The Belfry” which bouncy welcoming rhythms set the tone, the latter having to pant among bouts of lyrical, balladic/semi-balladic (“Snake in The Grass”, “Phoenix Rising”, “Sounds Good to Me”) respites which main redeeming quality is the fairly good clean vocals of the complete unknown at the time Aaron Randall who handles all these tender nuances with dexterity. Yes, this effort is mostly a vehicle for the singer’s exploits behind the mike, not so much for Waters’ axeman capabilities as those simply have no place on a mild friendly representation like the one here. The man still shows his teeth on the rowdier “Knight Jumps Queen” and the power/speed metal frolicer “Don't Bother Me”, before letting himself looser on the cool “Brain Dance”, a belated exhibition of more technical guitar wizardry with eccentric operatic, semi-declamatory vocalisms added the latter more of a spoiler than a beneficial ingredient.

Yes, Waters got himself out of a pernicious record deal with this unsightly instalment, and although it’s debatable how enthusiastic he had been during the recording process, one can’t deny the presence of a few rebellious outbursts of proficiency, the man not very happy playing second fiddle to the leading vocal performance the entire time. The times were changing, and heightened musical skills were not the scene’s dearest anymore; Waters had to sacrifice his lofty visions for conquering the technical/progressive metal roster, and even once this obligatory surrender to commercialism was out of the way he found it unnecessary to tread this more challenging path which was becoming more and more blurry and vague as time went on.

“Fiasco?”, like the title of one of the songs from the following “King of the Kill” suggested… no, not really; the team was working under pressure, making a compromise with their stance for this particular showing, and although shades of this mellow endeavour can be easily detected on subsequent albums (“All for You” and “Metal”, above all), the band never attempted another such “conflagration”. Waters carries on with his diverse metallic odysseys, bumpy fluctuating rides where everyone may find something to like, with the final destination not in sight yet… so place your bets now as to whether it will be another puzzling, contrived Hell or the next in line dark brooding Neverland.

The Annihilator album from 1993 is a shame. One song is called "Don't Bother Me" and this title makes me angry, because this is exactly what this commercial product itself does: it bothers me. I am not speaking about the fact that the third album of the band brought us its third lead vocalist, although such unstable conditions kill the identity of each and every formation. It's the discouraged and embarrassing direction that the full-length takes which was crucial for my decision to ignore further releases of the band.

The album starts more or less acceptably, even though the opening title track lacks speed and offers soft sections that prevent a punchy beginning. Aaron Randall, the aforementioned new singer, is part of the problem, because he avoids any form of aggression. He is a rock singer, but absolutely clueless when it comes to harsher forms of musical expression. Thank God, Waters hasn't written very hard songs. Everything is smoothly designed, even comparatively hard tracks like "Bats in the Belfry" present melodic vocals and indulgent guitar lines. Don't overstrain the new target group, it is not used to heavy sounds! The kitschy campfire romanticism of "Snake in the Grass" is what the girls and dudes of the mainstream are asking for. But don't forget: they are not very intelligent and it requires an optical impulse that they understand: I must buy this album. That's why the more or less sexy lady sits on the cover and stares sensually into emptiness. Aggravating the situation, the most useless tracks are yet to come. Two saccharine ballads flatter the ears of the North American housewives and make me puke. I don't hate each and every ballad, nevertheless, here we have 0% depth and 100% schmaltz. Totally miserable.

But I don't want to give a false impression. Two ballads for the bin would have been acceptable, if one does not make high demands on an album. The problem is that there is absolutely no song that features the traits of the first two works. No speed, no twilight, no aggression. Instead the protagonists deliver a kind of comedy (the closer) and many light rockers that nobody ever wanted to listen to. It is an impertinence that someone whispers "Alice in hell" at the end of the closer - the reputation of the great debut should not be destroyed by connecting the here reviewed and the first album.

Of course, the booklet shows some guys who are well styled and it also goes without saying that the production is clinically clean, powerless and without any edges. I always thought that (real) metal came from the margins of society, but here we see a completely different picture. Jeff Waters has not been willing to deliver at least one sharp riff. He can do whatever he wants, but I have a simple question: was it worthwhile to look for new friends with fat purses? Annihilator's first two works have a more or less legendary status until today, every other album fell into oblivion. Well done, Waters. It's simply a shame. Even Flotsam's "When the Storm Comes Down" is better than "Set the World on Fire" - and that is saying something.

Jeff Waters is a funny man. He refers to his solo project as a band, but he does most of the instrumentation, and all of the writing and the recording himself. Annihilator has always been hit or miss as a result. When the things in his life are good his music isn't. The albums are poppy, pointless, melodic and generally contain just a few listenable songs. Usually, every two albums Jeff makes a somewhat return to form before wandering off again. Thus the reason for the insane inconsistencies with Annihilator's catalogue. This album was the first album of this never ending cycle.

Upon first listening to this, most thrash fans will be turned off almost immediately. The first song is probably the most threatening of all the songs. It's probably the best track on here too. There is a sterile feeling to the album as a whole. The production is decent but lifeless. There were a few mishmash ideas that frankly, didn't work. In a nutshell this album sounds like thrash crossed with hair metal, which could've be a cool thing if it was heavier. (At least the bands prior Testament aping stopped with this release.)

Jeff has always had a silly side to his writing, both intentional and unintentional. Typically, he mixes more cliched and contrived lyrics with a sincere seriousness that's ultimately cancelled out when the silly song(s) are heard. On this album, 'Snake in the Grass' is probably the closest we get to a silly song. The best cuts off this release are the title track, 'Knight Jumps Queen', and 'Hell Bent for Leather' on the re-release. The ballad, 'Phoenix Rising', is passable if very sappy. The rest of the tracks are decent at best.

As expected, the riffs are tight, the solos amazing and everything is machine perfect. But it doesn't make up for the fact the songs are so radio friendly. Not that that's a problem if the songs managed to get there on their own, but this is forced commercialization.

Twenty plus years later upon listening to it again, this album has aged surprisingly well. It's a bit heavier than originally thought but not much. The vocals are awesome. With the exception of Rampage, Aaron Randall was the best singer Annihilator ever had. He couldn't scream but he could sing rather well. And if you're fortunate enough to have the 2009 re-release of this album, then you get to hear the best version of Priest's 'Hell Bent for Leather' ever put to tape. Jeff totally obliterates the original solo. It's beyond words.

Despite lacking the conviction of the first two albums, this album does stand on its own in the annals of Annihilator's history, but only as a whole, if you pick this apart and try to hear each song as it's own entity you'll hate this. Approach with an open mind and remember, this was before Annihilator went funk.

Annihilator’s third record features the third new lead singer in a row. Aaron Randall has a more melodic voice with a strong nasal tone. He sounds more unique than the two predecessors but I preferred their more classic thrash metal style. While the first two releases had its share of similarities, Set the World on Fire is an extremely inconsistent affair. Only Jeff Waters signature guitar sound between short high-pitched progressive metal riffs recalling Voivod, technically stunning thrash metal riffs in the key of Megadeth and melodic solos inspired by Iron Maiden and the likes reminds us of the fact that this is indeed still the same band playing here. The rest of this record is quite unusual.

First of all, the production is quite cold, simplistic and sterile, reminding me of Metallica’s …And Justice for All. This mastering moves the group away from its thrash metal roots and closer to the groove metal genre that was commercially successful with bands such as Pantera at that time. A more prominent use of lyrics about personal issues including more profanity seems to underline this tendency. Overall, the group presents itself as tough guys with a soft core.

Secondly, the album is overall much calmer than the two predecessors and includes an elevated number of ballads or half ballads with a dark tone that one would rather expect from grunge bands like Alice in Chains or Pearl Jam. Instead of offering a balanced mixture of both styles, the beginning and end of the album are dominated by cold groovy thrash metal while the middle section revolves around three power ballads. It becomes obvious that the band was trying to jump on two bandwagons at the same time to increase its album sales. While this makes much sense from a business point of view, it becomes obvious that this release is of a much weaker quality than the previous two outputs.

The best songs can be found right at the beginning and at the end of the album. ‘’Set the World on Fire’’ opens in a sinister and mysterious way before it unloads it energy in a mean and technical groove metal monsters with fierce lyrics and an emotional guitar sound. This is easily the most consistent and focused track on the album and was rightfully chosen as first single. ‘’Brain Dance’’ is one of the band’s most unusual songs even though it goes back to Jeff Waters’ beloved topic about mental disorders. Hysteric guitar riffs, sudden changes of pace and style, contrasting atmospheres shifting between scary, humorous and cool passages as well as weird radio play inspired scenes help portraying the mentally unstable storyteller. Despite being all over the place, the different passages have a clear purpose and end up complementing one another to my surprise.

Among the mellower tunes, ‘’Phoenix Rising’’ is probably the best. With its smooth acoustic guitars, the harmonious chorus and the emotional lyrics, it’s beyond me why this song wasn’t a massive radio hit single. It’s definitely the most commercial track in the band’s long career and Randall's vocal efforts really shine in this song.

Aside from two outstanding songs and one successful ballad which is good for what it is, this release includes a lot of average filler material. Nowadays, revisiting this album might only be interesting for two purposes. First of all, nostalgic minds could rediscover the trends and styles of the rock and metal scenes in the early and mid-nineties. Secondly, a metal fan who wants to prove his girlfriend that metal bands can also have a softer side, can take this release as a good example. For anyone else, this average output can be ignored.

We all know the story: Waters, riding relatively high on the success of the first two records, was forced by the label to streamline and refine his approach to appeal to a wider audience that had already largely departed for the budding trends of the period. Annihilator was hardly the only latecomer to the thrash scene that this template applied to, but if Waters is anything as a composer, he is versatile. Seems like most die-hards dismiss this one on the aforementioned grounds alone, but I really need to clear the air here. Alice in Hell was a great debut, but most of its material had been around for years and was refined up to that point. You have your entire life to write your debut album, and the pressure this concurrently put upon Never, Neverland ended up being more than it could handle. Other than the spectacular "Stonewall" and perhaps "Imperiled Eyes," Annihilator's sophomore effort does very little for me.

As such, the departure of Pharr was hardly a breaking point, and in comes Randall to fill his shoes. A front man who acts and sounds more like he belongs in a glam metal act, his fluffy, inoffensive timbre and infamous lisp completely bifurcated the fan base and remains a point of contention over twenty years later. I have always been a fan of Randall's voice, as he pulls off the power ballads exceptionally well. His gruff shouting sounds rather weak and neutered, but other than Rampage and Comeau, Annihilator have never exactly featured a vocalist with a true set of gonads. Waters himself comes closest to Randall's style, but by the time he was singing the music was rehashed, plodding garbage. We somehow get a mix of both old and new on Set the World on Fire, and it is honestly quite a pleasant experience.

Don't kill me just yet, but while I have almost always found '90s Annihilator rather wanting, the power ballads and interludes were always executed with verve and finesse. As I have mentioned in other reviews: Waters has a great knack for acoustic textures and moving, emotive passages. As such, he gave in to the label's demands here and delivered some of Annihilator's greatest, most memorable material. I'm not going to lie to myself like most of you and act like the group was still a thrash act by this point, because they largely weren't. Set the World on Fire is more "1993" than almost anything I can think of. Keen ears can discern the final throes of the experimental thrash phase petering out ("No Zone," "Brain Dance") mixed with some late '80s/early '90s hair/glam balladry ("Phoenix Rising," "Sounds Good to Me"). Two styles that were certainly past their expiration date by this point, but coalesce very well with Randall's soaring cleans and some of the first concerted experimentation with groove elements that came to define Annihilator proper later on.

It is just a fucking fun listen; an album that takes advantage of some of the tongue-in-cheek aesthetics that later sunk the band to the realm of self-parody. Annihilator has always been an incredibly dorky band, but it endears more than it irritates here. Take "Brain Dance" for example, which is completely awesome thanks to Waters concurrently losing his mind along with Randall's totally creative and innovative vocal lines. Padden tried to emulate Randall's off-the-wall technique on later albums like All for You, but he can't even come close. The aforementioned power ballads are high in number and do disrupt the flow of the album, so I can definitely see the criticism there, but only "Snake in the Grass" rightfully sucks. "Sounds Good to Me" is just beyond catchy - easily one of the greatest examples of a metal band adapting to a rather discursive climate. No idea how this one didn't find its way to multiple radio stations, as it is so saccharine and harmless that I can't help but love it. "Phoenix Rising" is not quite on par with the former, but gets the job done and has more of Waters' potent layering techniques.

Set the World on Fire definitely rocks more than it thrashes, and even with Waters' leads and solos enthralling as much as beforehand, most fans couldn't find much room in their collective heart for this one. For the period in which it was released? Maybe, but time has served Set the World on Fire pretty well, and it remains to this day the second-best Annihilator record behind the debut (naturally). Annihilator as a band fell apart right after this album, and continued to rehash the same formula ad-nauseam with repeatedly-modulated quality output, only perking up for the short period that Comeau manned the ship. Feast has restored in me some hope that the band can get their shit together, but I can tell you one thing: Set the World on Fire is usually the album I grab if I am in the need of an Annie fix.

(Revised/Updated 7/6/14)

Annihilator is an awesome band, and Jeff Waters is a musical genious and a great guitarist. So when I first started to listen to this band, I always wondered why they never got credit for what they did.

I was able to figure this out once I listened to more of their work past the first two albums, and the conclusion I came to was that, although Annihilator is consistant, and usually puts out material of pretty good quality, every so often Jeff makes an album that is a COMPLETE AND TOTAL PIECE OF SHIT.

I can't stress that enough. If you are new to this band, you need to make sure you pick and album that is one of their better works, because if you hear one of these bombs, you will never want to listen to anything else that Jeff has to offer, and Annihilator is too good of a band for anyone to miss out on because of this.

So, you are probably reading this, wondering why the hell I'm ranting about Annihilator's occasional stinkers? Well.......that's because this album is one of them, and in my opinion, only behind Remains and All For You, is their worst album.


The first thing is the singer on this album, holy shit, this dude's voice is annoying and obnoxious in pretty much every sense of those two words. His voice is so bad, that he sometimes ruins the few good songs on here just with his bad singing. His voice is too over the top, and his voice is so nasally that sometimes it literally sounds like he is singing through his nose. If anything, he doesn't sound like a metal singer, he sounds more like a really bad musical theater singer.

The other part of the album that ruins it is some of the music itself. Alot of the riffs and ideas are very boring, it's as if for this album Jeff was trying to streamline Annihilator's sound. His signature sound is not here; it's kind of hard to explain what it is, but anyone who listen to Annihilator will know what I am talking about. Alot of the complexities, cool riffs, instrumental progressions, and awesome solo's are not here. The ballads, in particular, Sounds Good to Me, are really cheesy. And there are almost NO thrash riffs, except for Knight Jumps Queen, which is a stupid song with lyrics so bad it makes some of Yngwie Malmsteen's song lyrics seem like Dante's Inferno or Paradise Lost by comparison.


Stay away from this album. Pick up Alice in Hell, Never Neverland, or Refresh the Demon if you want to take a look at Annihilator's earlier work.

Could it be that, 3 might be my lucky number? These were probably the thoughts going on inside the brain of Jeff Waters, the leader of Canadian thrashers, Annihilator, before the release of their album. Until then his band was well-known among the metal society but still hadn’t met the success and fame he hoped for. So, what could he do about that? The very first thing that came in mind was to change Annihilator’s style. Instead of thrash, they could easily change it into something more rock/metal.

His first move was to hire a new singer. So, off you go Pharr and welcome Aaron Randal. Two more musicians with hard rock influences came in; guitarist Neil Goldberg and drummer Mike Mangini. Then he found a catchy title for their album; Set the World on Fire, and put his girlfriend on the cover. A guaranteed way to draw attention. Then he focused on the music and the result came out in August 1993.

This introduction was the best way to describe my very first feelings and impressions when I listened to Annihilator’s third release. Only a few things reminded the band we knew in Alice In Hell and Never Neverland. What one will notice right away is how different Randal is from his predecessors. But still he seems as a combination of those two. He shows that he possesses a strong dose of melodic touch in his voice, especially in songs like the cool Sounds Good to Me or even better in the wonderful ballad called Phoenix Rising which by the way, has THE most beautiful acoustic guitar.

Yet, in the self-titled track, a rock/metal blaster, he shows such harshness that even singers like Bush could pay aspect to. He is damn good! Set The World… is the hit of the album, characterized by heavy, sharp guitars and killing drums. The two newcomers have adjusted perfectly to the bands requirements and show that they have the skills to play heavy metal if they are asked.

And they are. In the track No Zone which is very fast and breathe taking. Once again Annihilator deal with nature and how it suffers from man’s greed. Bats in The Belfry is also quite heavy though not as fast as No Zone. Strangely enough, this one could have perfectly been recorded for the Never Neverland LP. The great moments of the disc are completed with a strange song called Knight Jumps Queen. It is built upon the bass and drums section but at the chorus, Waters’ guitar makes things more interesting. Of course, I don’t think that I need to comment on Waters’ playing or his solos. As usual his fingers are on fire, creating fast and complicated themes. The lyrics here are about a man and a woman playing a game of chess. Or something more if bare in mind the sexual innuendo hidden behind them.

Anyway, the remaining songs are not particularly good. The semi-fast The Edge and Don’t Bother Me are tolerable, but the weird one called Brain Dance and the kind of boogie Snake in The Grass are rather unnecessary. They are there just to fill the space.

With this LP Annihilator didn’t manage to set the world on fire or hit the ceiling of fame and success. It was merely a good release with some great, medium and even bad songs. I kind of like it but it would have had better luck if it was a hard rock band’s album. It just kept them on the surface. If you can spare the money, give it a chance, otherwise you might as well borrow it from a friend.

Bands come to end of a golden era of classic albums. Most of the metal greats have such as Metallica after the Black Album, Iron Maiden after Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, and Megadeth after Countdown to Extinction. Unfortunetly for Annihilator, their golden era ended after Never, Neverland with their third album, Set the World On Fire. Once again, the band features an almost entirely new lineup including vocalist Aaron Randall. As much as I like Randalls voice, it still doesn't prevent this album from being a disappointment.

Annihilator guitarist and mastermind Jeff Waters went from writting amazing songs to suddenly falling off a cliff. The guitar playing is nothing special and is merely average at best. The drums and bass don't standout at all. Singer Aaron Randall is a good singer, but his voice just isn't suited for Annihilator.

Jeff Waters decided to go for a more commercial and poppy sound for this album. For Annihilator, that's a direct path to destruction and Set The World On Fire shows it all. When you think of Annihilator, you think of kick ass in-your-face technical thrash/speed metal. The stuff you get from Alice In Hell or Never, Neverland. With this album, you get virtually none of that. Instead, you get boring and stupid songs. While the title track is one hell of a song and No Zone and Knight Jumps Queen are kickass tunes, the rest of the album fails to meet that.

The thrash is almost non existant. It's just lame commercial metal songs and stupid ballads. I love ballads. Never, Neverland was an amazing ballad and is one of Annihilators classics. But Snake In The Grass and Phoenix Rising are just pathetic. Two consistant terrible songs almost ruined the album for me. Thankfully, it was saved by Knight Jumps Queen. When I heard this song, I thought, "THIS is the Annihilator I was thinking of." Unfortunetly after this killer song, the album never recovers. Sounds Good To Me sounds really good opening up, but when the vocals come in, I can already tell it was going to be another awful ballad. It's not a heavy metal song. It's a fucking POP song!! The Edge, Don't Bother Me, and Brain Dance all open up with some promise with the latter having some killer guitar work, but overall they are just mediocer filler tracks.

I knew this album wasn't going to be a masterpiece but I didn't know it was going to be this bad. This was worse than Annihilator's latest album, the average-at-best "Metal". The only thing I can say that is possitive about it is the title track, which when seeing the music video, shows decieving promise. Avoid this album at all costs.

There have been a good number of appeals in favor of this album stating that it is good for what it is, which would be a rather strong argument if one could actually nail down just what this album is stylistically. Although presented in a sort of 80s pop/metal format, this is pretty far removed from your standard pop album, even considering how murky and all over the place the entire concept of pop is when measured against more definable styles like rock, jazz, or blues. The whole album is presented with short time lengths and mostly standard structures, but when married to Jeff Waters’ blend of technical riffing and seemingly capricious lyrics, occasionally morphs into an anti-pop, avant-garde mishmash.

There are a number of obvious influences on here mixing with Waters’ progressive and thrash roots that were quite prominent in the early 90s. When accounting for grooving, repetitive, yet heavy numbers like “Set The World On Fire” and its half-ballad equivalent “Snake In The Grass”, you can’t help but hear the influence of Saigon Kick, Soundgarden, Candlebox and Ugly Kid Joe. A lot of it manifests itself in vocalist Aaron Randall’s vocals as well in the case of the first and last example. Other times there’s this odd mix of Ozzy’s “No More Tears” and “The Ultimate Sin” coming in and out of the shorter, 80s sounding heavy metal anthems “No Zone” and “The Edge”. By themselves, these songs sound fairly standard enough, but a band putting all of these onto the same studio album definitely starts to get a little out there.

The ironic thing is that what occupies the rest of the album gets extremely strange considering the influences already accounted for. The somewhat up beat ballad “Sounds Good To Me” reminds me of Dire Straits classic “Sultans Of Swing”, although presented in a way that also conjures up images of the Gin Blossoms recording a ballad with a late 80s glam rock production. As a song, it’s pretty catchy, but extremely out of character for a band that has allowed all of these 90s alternative/grunge influences to seep in. It starts off with this pretty unrelated intro, before kicking into a fairly consistent soft rock groove. Likewise, “Phoenix Rising”, which is a fairly inspirational and uplifting ballad, sounds like a more technically impressive version of Saigon Kick’s “Love Is On The Way”. It’s oddly effective in a sort of stylistic grab-bag fashion, but perplexes the ears of anyone who would listen to an album from start to finish.

The only thing on here that really carries a consistent remnant of Annihilator’s thrash origins consistently is “Knight Jumps Queen”. It basically flows in a mid-tempo fashion with a low end, bass driven atmosphere that also occasionally showed itself on early 90s Megadeth and Vio-Lence. It rides on a pretty simple riff that varies very slightly from section to section, but ultimately maintains a constant flow, almost like a thrash meets Accept rocker. “Don’t Bother Me” starts off sounding like a return to the thrashing goodness of old, before morphing into a thrash riff drenched, jazzy, swinging, rock anthem. Basically Jeff presents his own version of Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher”, with about twice as many riffs and a much heavier guitar sound. It’s a weird enough listen, but oddly fitting somehow.

Just when this orgy of stylistic crosspollination couldn’t get any stranger, we are left with “Brain Dance” to close things off. I’ve listened to this song dozens of times and to this day I have no idea what Waters was thinking or what he was smoking when he came up with this. The vocal presentation goes back and forth between 80s singing and odd, novelty vocalizations that would probably find a home on Dr. Demento’s radio station or Weird Al Yankovic’s discography. The intro riff is basically a combination of speed metal and a series of harmonized note clusters that would maybe only require a blast beat and some primal shrieks to become the world’s first mathcore riff. The verses sound NWOBHM influenced, while a couple of interludes sound like outtakes from “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. If you can listen to this song and not get the sneaking suspicion that someone left the door open at the twilight zone, your threshold for strangeness far surpasses mine.

If you treat each of these individual songs as their own entities and not as a collection and you exclude the last two, you can define this as something relatively commercial. In some respects, this album is fairly mainstream oriented when accounting for the stylistic vacuum that took hold of metal at this point in history and how it reflects everything that the public was gravitating to from one moment to the next. Now as to who might this album be geared to at present, you’re guess is as good as mine. This is not something that I’d recommend listening to from start to finish at all, but rather something you’d skip through and look for songs that might fit your particular mood. I can find a use for most of these songs, but it’s tough to see any fan of thrash, speed or progressive metal really getting into the entirety of this.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer) on September 30, 2008.

With Set the World on Fire, Annihilator axeman Jeff Waters has managed to craft one of their most inconsistent and commercial sounding albums to date. With very little thrash left on the table and a lot of apparent ballad/pop metal influences rearing their heads, StWoF was a disasterous release, on paper anyway. Somehow, Waters managed to make it work, giving us a very mainstream, but still respectable Annihilator release.

The song types are very divided in sound. The best ones are the Annihilator standard thrash classics. "Don't Bother Me" and the title track are heavy as hell, while "Knight Jumps Queen" delivers some enjoyable Testament worship and "Brain Dance" impresses with its ridiculousness. The problem songs are the ones that try and incorporate the pop influences. Sometimes it works. The all-out acoustic ballad "Phoenix Rising" is actually quite memorable, if not a great Annihilator song. But then there's some that just reek of 80's glam/hair metal. "The Edge" and "Sounds Good to Me" couldn't be lamer if they tried, mixing generic riffing with stupid lyrics and bad vocals. New vocalist Aaron Randall is actually a decent singer, but in the context of Anniihilator, his performance is most unwelcome, adding to the already "poppy" sound.

Despite this, Waters' playing is still phenomenal. Even when he's playing shitty pop songs, he plays them with conviction. His solos are outstanding. Unfortunately, his self-declared role as Annihilator's sole creative force would eventually send the band's albums into the darkest depths of mediocrity, with this album acting as the first step in that descent. For what it is, it's not terrible. I enjoy listening to it now and again; marvelling at the awesome tracks and how odd it is that they share an album with some terrible ones. Definitely not the place to start looking into the band, but a decent release anyway.

It's 1993 and Jeff is about to die completely. Grunge and watered-down Heavy Metal dominate the music scene. Many metalheads who were still interested in thrash around that time hoped for Jeff Waters to fulfil their thrashy desires.

Sadly, Jeff realized that playing Thrash metal the way he did it before would not exactly help him with being recognized among the new crowd. So he wrote "Set the World on Fire" - a heavy metal album, including the obligatory ballads and somewhat reminiscent (in the commercial sense) to Metallica's "Black Album".

What Metallica's copycats achieved was mostly the end of their own burial. Reasons were either commercial breakdowns (because no one would buy a bad copy of a beloved original, right?) or the loss of a loyal fan base and the bashing and displeasure that followed.

While Annihilator didn't quite differ from all the rest in terms of commercial success or fan loss, he had one thing that others didn't:

Quality.

Buried under a shallow coat of commerce whoring, there's a flawed, but still good heavy metal album to be found.

The first three songs still share their fair share of thrash aesthetics (mainly rapid riffing and blazing solos) but the new vocalist Aaron Randall (who's strange lisp is a producting failure, according to Jeff) indicates a turn to more melodic and accessible music.

When "Snake in the Grass" kicks off, things get clearer. It starts like your typical campfire ballad. Is this Annihilator? It takes more than a minute until some riffing appears.

Is it thrash? No. Does it turn into the ballad again after a few seconds? Yes.

Well, don't get me wrong, it's Jeff on the axe, so it's still somewhat listenable, if just quite lacklustre compared to the usual Annihilator thrash.

So, the Annihilator fan sits in front of the stereo, hoping that the album will pick after this weird little misstep when "Phoenix Rising" starts. If you thought "Snake in the Grass" was calm and slow, listen to this. "Phoenix Rising" is a purely acoustic ballad, but this time with Jeff on vocals and Aaron doing the background singing.
I don't know what it is, but this ballad, even though it's really accessible and calm, works for me. It's one of the greatest ballads I heard so far.

But what's with our typical Annihilator fan? I'm sure he's teared out his hair already.

"Knight Jumps Queen" is a weird little track, the main verses contain bass lines only and it's just the chorus that's plastered with some nice heavy riffing, sounding like a crossbreed of "Never, Neverland" left overs and "King of the Kill" riffs. Experimental would describe it best.

Oh, what's that? Another ballad? The metalhead is about to crush the CD into pieces, but accidentally hits the "skip" button and finds himself in a Judas Priest influenced Heavy/Power/Speed track called "The Edge", a track generally mentioned as one of the few worthwhile songs on the album. It indeed features some incredible lead work and a nice rhythm. Very catchy stuff.

The last two tracks somewhat award the average listener for his patience. They're the closest to thrash and older Annihilator (especially "Brain Dance") and utilize strong lead guitars and staccato rhythms here and there.

So our metalhead still sits in front of his stereo, dazed and confused. "Brain Dance" is about to fade out and Aaron Randall spits out only three words over and over again (in the harshest way he can possible sing):

"Alice ... in Hell... "Alice... in Hell".

For our metalhead, it sounds as if Randall was laughing at him hysterically, because he was expecting another Thrash record....

Get the album if you're curious of what Annihilator sounded like in 1993. But don't have any expectations. You might enjoy it.

Highlights:

Set the World on Fire
No Zone
The Edge
Phoenix Rising

It was bound to happen. In the wake of “The Black Album”, thrash acts were either falling apart or streamlining their sound to make it more accessible to the radical changes in the public’s taste. Annihilator also made an attempt at commercial success with their third album, and as it would happen they failed miserably in that respect. However, despite this territory being almost universally a disaster zone, Jeff Waters pulled it off safely.

Its schizophrenic design looks horrendously bad on paper and shouldn’t work at all. But strangely, Jeff Waters (plus new line-up) found ways to make this machine work. Not that I would ever suggest that this compares to the first two classic albums, for how could this endeavour possibly hope to beat them. It mingles songs which polish the surface of the established Annihilator sound, with self confident roadside hard rockers and some surprisingly competent power ballads. I can’t believe I’m actually listening to Annihilator sometimes while listening to this.

“Phoenix Rising” and “Sounds Good To Me” are alike in quality to some of the amazing Skid Row ballads: fluid and unforced. The title cut partnered with “Brain Dance” throw the clearest nods to the old Annihilator sound and technicality, with a poppier sheen glistening on the rampaging “Bats in the Belfry” and “Knight Jumps Queen”. The new vocalist has a kind of sneering lisp, but is fairly tolerable and adapts well to fit the various styles of songs.

Not the sort of follow up I really wanted for “Never, Neverland”, but it doesn’t warp the band’s framework so much trying to appeal to a different audience. Some bands were slow to pick up that a more pop approach to their material just wouldn’t cut it in the early 90s. It’s still a nice departure for Jeff Waters, who would rebound to the style of old shortly.

It is hard to imagine "Annihilator" doing some kind of bad album at this point. However, it appears it has happened. Considered one of the worst albums to date, is it really as bad as everyone says?

Pretty close, unforunately. The album starts out well enough with the title track 'Set The World On Fire', which is quite possibly one of the few good tracks on the album. This vibe will last up until 'Snake In The Grass'. After that it kind of goes down hill, except for 'Knight Jumps Queen', a rather smart song about chess.

However, the biggest shocker on the album, and what makes it almost worth while, is the song 'Brain Dance'. The song itself is rather hysterical and not meant to be taken seriously (atleast we hope). But the end is the best part, when the vocalist starts shouting the title of an older album over and over, and mentioning his friend Alice, whom he spends a lot of time with in the insane asylum.

Aside from the sometimes poppy ballad-esque tracks, the other annoying part is the vocalist. Unfortunately, he either has a speaking impediment, or it's just shotty production quality that makes it sound that way.

So, if you are looking for a more light rock orientated album, then you might find some entertainment out of this album. It just simply isn't what we have all come to know and love. The album, while it holds a few key songs on it that are actually good, the rest of the album is slow, tacky, and not like the band at all. Unfortunately, it is simply not impressive at all.

This one is definately worth a listen for the few good tracks, but not really worth shelling out a great deal of money for, unless you are an avid die hard fan of them.