Annihilator guitarist / founder Jeff Waters has shared behind-the-scenes facts about the band's iconic debut album, Alice In Hell. Check out the rundown below.
Waters: "Alice In Hell (1989) Facts - read til the end for surprise!"
- Annihilator: Alice In Hell was the first Gold Record for Roadrunner Records and the band.
- All songs written between 1984-1987 in Ottawa, Canada.
- All songs from Alice (as well as most songs / riffs from 1990's Never, Neverland) were demoed via three cassette demos:
1) 1985 - Welcome To Your Death - "Crystal Ann", "Welcome To Your Death", "Lust Of Death" ('Human Insecticide"), "Buzzsaw Blade", "I Am In Command", "Back To The Crypt", "Freed From The Pit" ("Road To Ruin").
2) 1986 - Phantasmagoria - "Alison Hell", "Gallery" ("Neverland" and "Stonewall"), "Phantasmagoria", "Ligeia". "Mayhem" ("Reduced To Ash") and "I Love The Dead" ("Kraf Dinner") were demoed in the same session but didn't get on the officially-released version)
3) 1987 - Shopping Demo (wicked mystic, imperilled eyes, word salad). For record labels only.
- The WTYD demo '85 was reviewed around the world, while the Phantasmagoria demo '86 landed in the Top 4 circulated cassette demos in metal music.Tape trading/dubbing was big then!
- While Jeff Waters wrote all the drums, Paul Malek played on most of the song demos; Jeff Waters played drums on three songs.
- Jeff Waters moved to Vancouver, August 1987 and started recording the record, off and on, from late '87-'88.
- Studio engineer Paul Blake not only worked on Annihilator's records 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6, he also taught Jeff basic recording techniques and helped equip the first Watersound Studios in Maple Ridge, BC in 1994.
- Alice In Hell is cited as an influence by members of bands like Opeth, Children Of Bodom, In Flames, Slipknot, Trivium, Lamb Of God to Nickelback and Three Doors Down, and many more.
- Megadeth's David Ellefson (and Nick Menza) stated that: "The Rust In Peace lineup would crank up the Alice In Hell cassette every day, to and from our writing and recording sessions for (their classic) the Rust In Peace record."
- Waters' guitar playing on this record is said to be a major influence on the Scandinavian metal scene
- The next record, Never, Neverland, surpassed Alice in sales.
Waters previously commented: "2024 is THE YEAR OF ALICE: ALICE IN HELL.
35 years since its release and we will be celebrating with many of you for the year with merch, signature guitars, shows, events, catalogue reissues, etc… and this will lead us into 2025, which is the anniversary of our biggest record: Never, Neverland. Alice will continue on with us, into 2025.
Randy Rampage, Alice In Hell’s vocalist and awesome frontman, passed away a few years back. To honour Rampage, I had a tough job to find someone to fill his shoes for this anniversary.
Stu Block may be known as a badass vocalist and frontman BUT he also loves Rampage's attitude and will be the perfect singer to channel this classic record onstage. Long-time, fellow axe-slingers Rich Gray (4 strings!) and Aaron Homma (6 strings!) also continue their journey with Annihilator.
Stage? Oh yeah. Let us just start with this: Annihilator will be co-headlining, along with Scorpions and Five Finger Death Punch, at Topfest, Slovakia on June 29, 2024. We will play the entire “Alice” record, along with some other rockin’ tunes.
This will be an exclusive Europe festival show for 2024, however, we will be announcing lots more, starting January.
We have NOT forgotten anyone. We will do our best in 2024-2025+ to get to where we should have been playing AND to where we already have!
So, thank you all for getting Annihilator to the point of 17 studio records, a zillion tours and STILL rockin' after all these years. We are very aware that we’re still going strong because of our fans; not the industry.
On that note, any festivals and promoters that want this legendary Alice/Neverland set in 2025, talk to our dude Nik at Bottom Row for Europe and our web site contact for everywhere else!
Check the socials for regular updates now, cause we have a lot coming for you!
Love and Metal to all, Annihilator and Jeff Waters."
