Remains

Somewhere along the line, Jeff Waters started listening to a lot of White Zombie and Ministry, probably some of Prong's transformative works during this same period, and thus Remains was born, an album that is inarguably the most 'experimental' in Annihilator's catalogue. There are still a number of straight-up thrash tracks, which makes the album even more confusing, but the whole thing is a fucking mess that shouldn't have ever seen the light of day, even if Jeff had stuck with just one of the particular sounds he was exploring. I can't tell what's worse, the totally bland cover image or the music itself, which seems to utterly fail to grab onto a proper hook or chorus no matter which avenue of heavy music it is trying to explore, all of which feel pretty derivative, just not from the source they should have been...Annihilator's impressive debut years.

"Dead Wrong" sounds like "Walk" from Pantera, only mixed slightly more for rivet-heads with the vocal filter. "Sexecution" sounds like a bad Rob Zombie from the Great White North, only Rob would have tossed this track off his first few forthcoming solo albums for how unforgivably bland it is. He can't even stick to the same industrial metal sound, "No Love" goes a bit more like a Goth-y Ministry, and the album gets even WEIRDER than this..."Wind" sounds like a slightly more dissonant version of Rush, "Bastiage" sounds like some 80s synth music from a big budget 80s cop flick only with some chugging layered in. Keep in mind that throughout this, Waters occasionally swings back into thrash mode for tunes like "Tricks and Traps", and Remains winds up totally disoriented and disorienting and making you question why any record label executive in his/her right mind would approve this for release other than a test copy that would be immediately discarded to the nearest wastebasket.

If Jeff had stuck to one experiment and created something more compelling and cohesive, I would have happily forgiven the total sea change and perhaps even enjoyed it, but this is an album that lives up to its title as the corpsified 'Remains' of a once-promising metal band that lost its way completely in an age of rapidly evolving trends. And I don't say these things because I hate any of these other genres...I was and 'remain' a huge fan of industrial metal today, including most of what Jeff was probably inspired by, but this album simply doesn't do any of that any justice, and certainly not Annihilator. Production is all over the place, you can count the catchy riffs in the thrash songs on two fingers, and even the track list isn't laid out in any way where these broad strokes can complement one another. It would turn out to be a short-lived deviation, to be fair, but coming off what was already a pretty miserable stretch of albums with no hope in sight, I'm beyond shocked that the Canadian survived this one.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

World-famous guitar hero and Annihilator mastermind Jeff Waters, for better or worse, might be the perfect definition of a "free-spirited creative mind": he doesn't give a shit about belonging to a specific musical tribe and placing himself inside a single artistic box, he doesn't enjoy sticking for too long to a fixed formula and to what his audience expects from him, and he's always been possessed by a weird "inquietude", an all-consuming restlessness which always brought him to experiment in countless wacky ways, some more successful than others. For instance, I've always considered 2004's "All for You" to be one of the worst records ever made by a big metal band: I could never stand its misguided, at times nonsensical mixture of trendy groove metal, insipid thrash metal and awful early-2000's radio-rock/nu-metal, ineptly sung by a near-unlistenable, straight-up metalcore vocalist. However, that disastrous piece of shit of an album seems to be more tolerated within Annihilator's fanbase compared to another, much more controversial work which on the contrary I happen to find infinitely more solid and genuinely interesting, having developed a very strong personal relationship with it over the years: that work is 1997's "Remains" - otherwise known as Jeff's solo descent into techno/industrial-land to the dismay of most of his fans. Still, not to my dismay, as a fan of all things industrial and experimental from the 90's: electronic influences and dreary, bleak soundscapes blended in with Jeff Waters' haunting trademark riffing? Fuck yeah man, count me in by all means!

Now you may be wondering, what the heck drove Jeff to write such a divisive album that made a huge part of his fanbase instantly run for the exit door? Commercial ambitions? Even this reason comes off as a bit weird: Annihilator was doing great at the time with the standard metal formula of 1994's "King of the Kill" and 1996's "Refresh the Demon", especially on the Japanese market where they had gained a very loyal following. Well, Jeff has always placed the blame for how "Remains" turned out on two things: the music his ex-wife was listening to at the time (commercial techno/industrial stuff like Prodigy or Nine Inch Nails) which ended up influencing him, and his unwillingness to deal with other musicians, even moreso than on "King of the Kill" and "Refresh the Demon" whose external contributions were already quite limited. This time, Jeff turned up the drum machine and found out he preferred it over real drums, even giving certain tracks a rather experimental feel that seemed worth exploring.

This is why some songs on "Remains" (especially during its first half - another batshit crazy choice which was sure to alienate a strong chunk of the audience) feature a lot of minimalistic techno beats to complement the classic brand of groove metal riffage Annihilator fans were already familiar with since a couple of albums. Yes, an important thing to stress is that these electronic influences are much more minimal and restrained than most people make them out to be, to the point of almost sounding amateurish, as it's fair to expect from a man just fucking around with his drum machine all by himself. I've read comments theorizing that "Remains" could have been a better album if Jeff just had the humility to look for a producer who could guide him in the pursuit of his experimental ambitions in the realm of electronic music instead of doing everything by himself (insert crybaby rant about Waters' inflated ego). Pffft, who fucking cares. I habitually hear much more D.I.Y.-minded usages of drum machines and electronic beats in various underground releases compared to this album released on Music for Nation by a relatively big metal band, be it Godflesh's first EP or the weirder stuff from Beherit - and that's exactly what makes those elements cool in the first place: they're not overplayed nor overtly sleek and commercial, only adding to the unfriendly, alienating feel of the music. In my opinion, the formula of "Remains" sounds just right for the job: the electronic beats are dry and minimalistic enough to sound more eerie and weird than genuinely radio-friendly. In a rather counterintuitive paradox, experimenting with electronic music has made Annihilator less accessible and easy-listening than they were before.

Right from the start with opening track "Murder", you know something feels off: that rather cold, mechanical groove riff doesn't sound groovy and headbangable in the slightest, being truncated by those rather uncanny pauses of silence (doubling down on the vaguely uneasy vibes that could already be felt at times on "Refresh the Demon") before some quite unsettling techno beats start creeping in the background and Jeff's whispered vocals make their appearance, just in time for Annihilator fans (especially virgin guitar nerds who only listen to the band to wank off Jeff's melodic guitar licks) to start panicking. Yes, most of these industrial-tinged groove metal tracks tend to sound fairly quiet, atmospheric and oftentimes straight-up creepy, rather than loud and bouncy in the typical Pantera fashion. The chorus of "Murder" makes it instantly clear: these songs invest more on texture, atmosphere and noisy guitar effects than on sheer catchy rhythmics (on the contrary, these rhythms often tends to sound rather uneven and difficult to tap your foot to), conveying a menacing, deeply uncomfortable feeling that might have sounded off-putting to most listeners back in 1997. The riffing on "No Love" is a delightful mix of rhythmic chugging, noisy pinches and eerie, desolate soundscapes conjuring depressing, dystopian, almost nihilistic visions, with the techno beats only providing a bare backdrop and nothing more. This type of noise-oriented guitar experimentalism reaches its apex on "Human Remains", which might be one of the most underrated Annihilator songs ever, and it's truly one of a kind: it's basically fast-paced drum machine thrash metal with an obscenely dirty, grainy, synthetic guitar tone (obtained by cranking the gain up to the max) which builds upon these filthy sonic aesthetics by maximizing the noisy elements in the guitar department, with tons of pinches between the riffs, some brief cyclical pauses where the music breaks down for a moment into an abstract industrial-sounding mess and, most importantly, an ever-growing, ear-piercing feedback sound all across the song - all this, with equally distorted, amelodic, distant-sounding vocals as the cherry on top; it's basically the mixture of thrash metal and harsh noise/industrial I've always dreamed of, sounding a bit like Ministry's "The Land of Rape and Honey", but even more wretched and anti-musical than the Jourgensen/Barker team ever dreamed to be. Beyond the appearances, Jeff Waters is clearly not the normie, vanilla guitar hero most people picture him to be, and this track is the biggest demonstration of that.

The only exception to this unambiguously unfriendly formula is the extremely controversial "Sexecution", which uses its techno/industrial influences in a slightly more radio-friendly way: this track is basically a static White Zombie chugfest which still manages to retain some degree of cool atmosphere and texture during its sexy chorus. It's a fun, kinky song, but a bit out of place on such a bleak, alienating album (especially when put as track number two), and I get why so many people hate it; Nine Inch Nails' "Closer", this ain't. Other more conventional groove metal tracks, devoid of techno beats, prove to be quite accessible as well - albeit the pretty standard chugging number going by the name of "Never" still doesn't let you off the hook with dystopian-sounding guitar dissonance and a menacing, riff-packed crescendo during the second half that almost sounds like a prototype for the dark, sinuous grooves of "Punctured" (a song from 1999's "Criteria for a Black Widow"). The slightly more sleazy "Dead Wrong" is definitely another track that seems to paint "Remains" in a bad light, with its main riff unashamedly sounding like a Pantera's "Walk" ripoff. And yes, it definitely is - but I'm going to blaspheme Dimebag's name once again: this is much better than "Walk". Yes, I have said it. It's not the only case of Annihilator borrowing ideas from Pantera and improving upon them (two examples of this: "Annihilator" with "Five Minutes Alone", and "The Perfect Virus" with "Cowboys from Hell"), and "Dead Wrong" is another interesting case of this phenomenon: there's a certain finesse in Jeff's playing style that makes me prefer it over Darrell's, and the structure of this track is much more dynamic, riffy and powerful compared to "Walk"'s static, boneheaded plodding. Just listen to that balls-out rocking "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" chorus: it might be an unpopular opinion, but there's no competition in my book. Walk on home, Dime.

However, what most people failed to understand at the time (having supposedly thrown the CD in the garbage bin after hearing the first few tracks) is that "Remains" is far from being just techno/industrial wackiness and groovy stuff. During its second half, the album morphs into a much more traditional rock/metal affair, with the only "modern" signifier being the invariably dry-sounding drum machine. The pretty fucking amazing ballad "Wind" (featuring one of Waters' best arpeggios of all time, so delicate and touching in its stunning simplicity) represents the dividing line, carrying the album into this different territory which doesn't sound too far removed from the likes of "King of the Kill" and "Refresh the Demon" - to be fair, maybe even more balls-out aggressive than anything on those two records: the final handful of tracks (save for closing instrumental "Bastiage", which is basically synth-driven techno music with some distorted guitars thrown in) operates within a 100% old school thrash/speed metal framework which sounds just as brilliant as the experimental songs in the first half, benefitting from Annihilator's tried-and-true formula which never failed to kick major ass at the time. "Tricks and Traps" is often praised for its top-tier aggressive, technical, energetic riffage (okay, there's a recycled "Fun Palace" lick, but the song remains a total thrash metal goldmine) - yet, in my opinion, "Reaction" might even be better, being one of the fastest, most brutal Annihilator songs of all time thanks to its spasm-inducing, facefucking "Human Insecticide on steroids" guitar work that keeps bludgeoning you without mercy from start to finish. "I Want", on the other hand, is a more relaxed track showing more of Jeff's melodic speed metal roots, even though his vocals seem to be struggling a bit within this less extreme field (I wonder what this song would've sounded like with Joe Comeau on vocals).

Wrapping it all up: "Remains" is not an easy record, at all. It's definitely the most misunderstood album in Annihilator's vast discography (together with the criminally overlooked "Criteria for a Black Widow", released just only two years later as a supposed "comeback" to the band's original sound). Most people see "Remains" as an odd, misguided attempt at trend-hopping, but I don't think that was Jeff's real goal: most of the infamous experimental tracks on this album are as far removed from "easy-listening" as you can imagine. There are tons of groove metal influences, for sure, but they're generally employed in a way that doesn't sound particularly fashionable even by 90's standards. And that's what has always made "Remains" so damn haunting and mesmerizing to me: its straight-up weirdness, its unfriendly eeriness, its uncanny, oppressive, alienating feeling which doesn't sound like anything else in Jeff Waters' catalog, while still retaining his addictive trademark riffing I could never do without. It's also an extremely varied, conflicted album, torn between the usual Annihilator sound and Jeff's experimental restlessness I have mentioned before, which in this particular case brought him even farther than usual from his comfort zone, with fairly disastrous consequences: in Jeff's own words, after "Remains" came out, Annihilator's sales dropped catastrophically, and remained relatively low for a whole decade, until 2007's "Metal" (an actual example of vapid commercial trend-hopping) sold a fuckton of copies thanks to its convenient guest appearances from the modern mainstream metal scene, bringing the band back to regular levels of commercial success. To sum it up, I don't think of "Remains" as a trendy, cynical attempt at 90's rebranding the way Rob Halford did around the same time with 2wo; I just like to think of it as what most likely really was - that being, just the product of a bored, grouchy guitarist fucking around in his studio with a drum machine and coming up with some truly sick stuff in the process. It might not be an absolutely flawless record, but the more I hear it as the years pass, the more I wholeheartedly adore it - not in spite of its eccentricities and inconsistencies, but because of them. Definitely one of my favorite examples of weird 90's industrial metal experiments that went over people's heads: give it another try and let yourself get lost in its dreary, bleak, machinelike soundscapes: it might be worth it.

Jeff Waters was in a very dark place when he created the controversial Remains. This is immediately obvious when you listen to this weird record where Annihilator's founder and sole constant member sings, plays the guitar as well as the bass and programmed a drum machine. Cold and clinical start-stop riffs in the key of groove and industrial metal meet highly distorted guitar solos giving this release a depressive and dystopian atmosphere. The low and unspectacular bass guitar sound and the clinical and dry drum sound add to these sinister soundscapes. Occasional electronic sound elements increase the mechanic vibe of this album. The lyrics blend in very well and just a look at the song titles reveals how desperate, frustrated and isolated the creator of this release must have felt.

That's exactly what I like about this album. It feels absolutely authentic and you can definitely feel a liberating negativity in every single song on this quite consistent effort. This is Jeff Water's most personal, most intense and most atmospheric record and it really sucked me into a gloomy atmosphere right from the start and never let me go until the very end. It definitely is a record for special occasions on your own only but it definitely has its unique charm. Despite its surprisingly coherent structure, this record still features slightly diversified soundscapes and offers creative little surprises from start to finish that work out very well most times but also fall flat here and there. Among my favorite tracks, I would mention the heavy anti-racist statement ''Never''. In addition to its honest lyrics, it convinces with its dystopian and uneasy guitar soundscapes and a stoic rhythm section. One of the most unusual and yet successful experiments on here is the floating and progressive rock tune ''Wind'' with its multiple vocal layers, relaxing guitar melodies and smooth keyboard sounds which all work as counterparts to the record's overall aggressive direction. The song was described as very Canadian by Jeff Waters himself and it reminds me indeed of a mixture of Rush and Voivod in their smoother moments. Finally, the vivid ''I Want'' mixes classic heavy and thrash metal with crossover elements. The track almost sounds like it could come from a manic-depressive Red Hot Chili Peppers clone of the late eighties.

A special shoutout goes to the reconciliatory and warm bonus track ''It's You'' which is a truly profound ballad transmitting a feeling of smooth liberty that fits so well with Canadian culture. You can really picture yourself driving on endless highways through the nature of the true north strong and free and despite this reference, the song isn't flat or stereotypical but beautiful and diverse. ''It's You'' is probably the most underrated track in Annihilator's entire extensive discography.

Even though I adored this album, it's easy to understand why most people can't relate to it and felt negatively surprised by Annihilator's new lyrical and musical style, the cold and underproduced mixing and the seemingly uninspired cover artwork. Only a few tracks include classic Annihilator trademarks like the energizing ''Tricks and Traps'' with its more melodic guitar solo reminding of the group's first four records or the extremely fast dystopian thrash metal attack on ''Reaction'' which are both forgotten pearls in Annihilator's discography.

On a side note, the rhythmic ''Dead Wrong'' has clearly inspired ''Death Scent'' from Annihilator's latest studio album since lyrics, melody lines and song structures are very similar. Even though ''Death Scent'' is probably my least favorite track on an excellent record, this shows that Remains is one of the most important records in Annihilator's history and deserves more attention and respect than it gets.

To keep it short, Annihilator's Remains is another record showing a darker side of a veteran group in the nineties. This is basically Annihilator's equivalent to Iron Maiden's The X Factor, Judas Priest's Jugulator or Voivod's Phobos. I loved all these three albums because of their direct, gloomy and uncompromising atmosphere and it's the same case here. If you like this particular type of atmosphere, you should give this release a fair chance. It's a perfectly imperfect record that feels so intense because of and not despite its obvious flaws. Those looking for vivid thrash metal from the old days will only find two or three interesting tunes on here and should ignore this release.

Remains is certainly about as uncharacteristic as its reputation suggests. Waters has made it sufficiently clear that this album was written and recorded during a period of isolation and identity crisis on his part, and as a result a menagerie of outside elements began to seep in to the writing process. On the surface, this is hardly a reason for unease or even atypical for Annihilator, who have always proudly done their own thing with little concern of fitting a specific overarching mold. The problem begins to take shape in the form of multiple "Walk" rehashes that end up constituting nearly half of the album. Annihilator has tried so often to groove in the past, but they never seem to be able to pull it off convincingly. Maybe it is the quasi-technical riff delivery that precludes the band from achieving a truly bouncy subtext. Maybe it is the fact that these songs just suck, but looking forward all the way through Waking the Fury, it remained a sizable monkey on Waters' back that he was never fully able to shake off until much later.

It's difficult not to toss some respect in Waters' direction by virtue of the fact that Annihilator was nothing more than a one-man band at this point. As such, the cohesive nature of this material is quite impressive, and Remains certainly has its moments when it feels like giving a damn. "Reaction" nearly breaches the space-time continuum in the speed category, rightfully immolating any sense of stagnancy accrued by the meager first half of the album. "Tricks and Traps" is more mid-paced and atmospheric, but it gets the job done and hails back to "Bats in the Belfry" from Set the World on Fire. Speaking of Set the World on Fire, Waters attempts to completely ape Randall's delivery on virtually all fronts. Whether it is the gritty atonal barking or the silky smooth cleans, his approach and tone is virtually identical to Randall's. As such, those who were not fond of Annihilator's more mainstream-oriented approach that began in earnest on their third album will certainly find Remains equally revolting - if not more so.

At any rate, the aforementioned lame duck first half of Remains is a hard beast to love, no matter how dedicated an Annihilator fan one may be. "Murder", "No Love", "Dead Wrong", and especially "Sexecution" (seriously?) are all abhorrent blends of churning stop-start riffs, extremely dated electronic undertones, and whispered-so-my-mom-won't-hear-me angsty vocals that make you feel embarrassment and pity for the band. The normally enterprising crunchy Annihilator guitar tone tries to salvage some of the riffs, but even it finds itself reaching levels of self-parody through excess. Listen to the beginning of "Human Remains", that tone is so excessively overdriven that it sacrifices virtually all of it's bottom end, diffusing into a wall of garbled noise that clash mightily with the irritating pinch harmonics. Just unappealing no matter how you slice it.

As strange at this may sound, some of Remains' best moments are centered around the two acoustically-textured, power ballad efforts in "The Wind" and the bonus track "It's You". On an instrumental level alone, Waters always delivers on songs like this, and his insistence on ganking Randall's saccharine delivery could certainly be a lot worse. The otherwise faceless drum machine is much more digestible here, and the melodies are rather searing and memorable. "Bastiage" is also passable for what it is, which is an atmospheric keyboard-driven number that stands out like a store thumb in the album's procession. The clacking approach to the drum machine may sound like a metronome, but it isn't too bad and manages to squeeze by without offending.

Remains has its particularly vile moments, but it still isn't the worst thing I've ever heard, or even the worst Annihilator record. Most uncharacteristic? Certainly, but for a record composed entirely by one individual, it is alright. Falls in line with most of the band's '90s material, and has it's place.

Jeff Waters had a rather unique place in the musical wasteland that was the mid to late 90s groove metal scene. When he took complete control of vocal duties and began what many refer to euphemistically as his experimental period, he didn’t fully morph his music into an all out crap fest the way Sepultura and Machine Head did, but instead took the concept of half-thrash to a more literal place. Instead of simply dumbing down the thrash style into a slower, more primitive and less aggressive version of its former self in every song, he took the road of thrashing out for a few songs and then loading up the rest of the album with whatever was happening at the time. “Remains” lives up to its title, as it basically functions as a collection of decayed remains of what made “Alice In Hell” and “Never, Neverland” good, mixed in with the most decrepit stench guising as music that one could imagine.

Despite there being a collection of moderately listenable to respectable metal songs on here, what fills up most of this is so utterly gay and revolting that it occasionally dwarfs “Supercharger” in terms of crappy mallcore tendencies. There’s a bit of everything terrible about this era of music drenched all over the first half of this album, including some techno-like beats courtesy of Rammstein, plenty of homoerotic whispered vocals in line with Nevermore, dumb ass tough guy vocals that try to be Hetfield, Flynn and Anselmo all at the same time, and plenty of boring, repetitive 2 note chug riffs played at mid-tempo that only someone with a 60 IQ could truly appreciate. One actually has to marvel at just how eclectically terrible this thing gets within the first five songs, from the Pantera inspired groove drones to the somniferous and cybernetic percussion which almost flirts with Ace Of Base territory.

The crappiness commences with the groovy “Murder”, which only really succeeds in murdering the concept of aggression. Basically you throw in this really annoying “Walk” riff with some abrupt silence, later substituted with some single note chugging, and pile on the technology and whispered narrations like pepperoni on a meat lover’s pizza. Waters sounds like he might as well be going to an authentic German microbrewery and ordering mineral water during the whispered verses, to speak nothing for the comical pseudo-Hetfield yells going on around them.

Next enter “Sexecution” and “No Love”, loaded with even more annoying grooves and mechanical beats, and Waters continuing to threaten to make out with every male listener of this album with his pansy sounding whispering. Things get a little once we arrive at the middle of the album with “Dead Wrong”, as the breathy same-sex foreplay leaves and we are left with a merely bad imitation of Phil Anselmo with another groove drone inspired by “Walk”, this one even more overt of a direct homage to the song.

Once you get past this, what remains on “Remains” (that pun was definitely intended) is a smattering of moderately enjoyable early era Annihilator. The weakest of this collection is the ballad “Wind”, which suffers from having a groove mentality being superimposed on its main riff and sounds like a sad version of a children’s song Silverchair style. It picks up a bit for the last minute of so and throws in some fairly solid lead parts, but there were two better versions of this song on “Set The World On Fire”.

The real meat and potatoes of what is good on here manifest themselves in two solitary songs, “Tricks And Traps” and “Reaction” respectively. Both highlight riffs and segments of well realized, thrash-happy and technical aggression that are reminiscent of “Alice In Hell”, the latter of the two really getting close to the majesty of “Human Insecticide”. Waters’ vocals are a fairly decent Hetfield imitation here, but there are so many really good riffs thrown into these two that you don’t really care what the vocals are doing. If you took most of the rest of the music on here and ignored these two songs, you’d assume that Waters’ creative well had completely run dry, but these two songs definitely offer an explanation as to how he was able to turn this disaster back into something viable a few years later.

This isn’t something that I can recommend purchasing in its entirety, even to core Annihilator fans that were able to tolerate “King Of The Kill” and “Refresh The Demon”. The bulk of the contents on here don’t really qualify as groove metal when compared with the first pure manifestations of the style in Pantera and Machine Head’s earlier 90s releases. It’s stylistically confused, at times extremely painful to listen to unless you like techno-pop (I don’t), and vocally about as annoying as can be. Jeff Waters had the good fortune of releasing a near complete musical abomination only once, which is more than I can say for some of his contemporaries at this stage of the game. The advent of legal individual song downloads via itunes and amazon.com has made it possible to obtain “Tricks And Traps” and “Reaction” by themselves, so simply do that and forget the rest of this album ever existed.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on February 28, 2009.

I got this album after being impressed by two songs I had downloaded from it. Two songs really owned, so getting it should have been a safe bet. Alas, it was nothing more than cruel irony, as I later found out that I had somehow downloaded not only the album's best two songs, but the only two songs that could be considered good.

Apparently dissatisfied with the last few Annihilator releases, which were kind of mediocre, but not bad, main man Jeff Waters figures that it's the other members of the band that are holding him back. So he decides to do it all himself. Well, he pretty much did it all to begin with, but now he has a drum machine. The result is an album that is highly industrial influenced, with more in common with Rammstein than Annihilator. Waters' usually outstanding playing is muddied down with effects, shitty industrial/groove riffs, and unbearable repetition. His lead work is half-assed at best, minus the two good songs. Those two songs I'll stand by are "Tricks and Traps" and "Reaction." The former is a riff masterpiece, reminiscent of Never Neverland era Annihilator, while the latter is an all out thrasher, a modernized version of "Human Insecticide". But these two are late in the album. Much of it is made up of shitty repeated riffs interplayed with the very predictable and synthetic sounding drumkits. And if the music wasn't unbearable, the vocals/lyrics make it so. Waters actually has a good voice, when he's not doing that horrid whisper-singing he does through pretty much all of this. The lyrics are retarded and inconsequential, even at their best. So besides the two above songs, there's a few infrequent riffs, leads, and vocal lines that are nice.

This is actually a bit more bearable if you don't mind the heavy industrial sound and aren't expecting any real thrash metal on this, which is why my review is a bit more favorable than the others on here. But this is still undoubtedly one of the band's worst releases and easily one of the worst albums put out by a once great thrash metal band. Avoid unless you're really fucking open-minded or you like shit.

I'm sure many Annihilator fans were shocked when they purchased "Remains" which was released only half a year after the very good "Refresh the Demon". Most probably expected a continuation of the frenetic speed/thrash ideas showcased on the last album. Boy, were they wrong!

I heard about this album being two things: unbelievably bad and unbelievably weird. While I don't hesitate to agree with the latter, I'm not so sure about the former.

According to Jeff Waters, 1996 was a very hard year for him, Metal was pretty much dead in the USA around that time, so he decided to do some experiments.

"Murder" is the first track and Jeff's really digging in the groove box here. Remember the groove elements in "Pastor of Disaster" on the album before this one? Well, if you didn't like those, you can shoot you in the head now. This is even too much groove for my taste. The track remains fairly monotonous throughout, which gives you enough time to think about your opinion about the industrial effects that accent the track.

"Sexecution" doesn't differ much from "Murder", it's just even less guitar driven. When I heard the next track "No Love" which wasn't any better, I started losing all hope for this album.

Luckily, "Never" finally utilizes some riffs again and features REAL vocal work for the first time on the album (only whispering and .... weird singing was used before). Here the industrial elements lose importance and more space is used for guitar riffs. Nowhere close to their former work, but it's definitely noticeable. The next two tracks follow the same formula. "Wind" is the shittiest Annihilator ballad so far, even competing with "Holding On" from the "All For You" album. It sounds like Jeff was too lazy to sing in a right key and the guitars sound half-assed as well.

The next three tracks are the saving grace of this album. The industrial level is turned to almost zero, the riffs are cranked up to an almost "Refresh the Demon" - like level and the vocal work sounds like the one from the Jeff we're used to again (except for the chorus in "I Want" which sounds kind of shitty). "Reaction" is the best track of the three and it's main riff is very brutal for Annihilator, showing first signs of the sound that would later appear on "Criteria for a Black Widow".

The track "Bestiage" is an industrial instrumental outro with lots of effects and strange use of the drum machine. The guitar work is driven back to it's most primitive and monotonous. But for some reason it manages to not completely suck, despite it being undeniably forgettable.

Was this the Annihilator I've come to love? Definitely not.
Did this even remotely sound like Annihilator? Yes, at least in parts.
Did I enjoy some of the tracks here? Yes, I did.

Conclusion:

A very strange record, but not without merit. You can clearly hear that Jeff wasn't really sure what to do with this, neither does it feel like as if he was very experienced with industrial music. That's probably the reason for it's inconsistency.

Recommended to Industrial fans and VERY open-minded metalheads.

Highlights:

Tricks and Traps
Reaction

Raw sewage:

Sexecution
No Love
Wind