In May of 2024, Metal Department released Amerikan Kaos' Armageddon Boogie, the debut solo release by Annihilator's Jeff Waters. What you get here is pure hard rock, with some killer melodic hooks, making this a refreshing throwback to better days, but with a modern twist. Armageddon Boogie is the first part of a trilogy, with part 2 coming in 2025 and part 3 in 2026.
Today, Waters releases the first single off the debut album, a double-sided affair featuring exclusive radio edited versions of: "My Little Devil" (Jeff Waters) and "Roll On Down The Highway" (Fred Turner, Rob Bachman).
Here are Jeff Waters' own comments on the two tracks:
"My Little Devil": "The first track on the album! There is an obvious 'nod' to AC/DC and the Stones. There is a definite 'Hells Bells' vibe going on in the music part in the beginning and, somehow, it then kind of transitions into a Rolling Stones vibe! I also love the vocals on this one. Chandler Mogel (vocals) has such a nice, gospel/rock feel on this, while Marc and Jessie each put the icing on the cake with their unique backing vocals. The song is about how I met my wife and how I had been living most of my life, just to get to the point of meeting her. This tune seems to be the most popular song from everyone who’s listened to the album, so far... And I think that is also probably my favourite song on the record, too!"
"Roll On Down The Highway": "As a kid growing up in Canada there many amazing bands from my country... Triumph, Rush, April Wine, The Guess Who... Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings were just a legendary duo! But when Randy Bachman left that band and they moved on without him, he started up BTO (Bachman-Turner Overdrive). They produced some of the most bad-ass music and Randy even outsold his former band The Guess Who. We all know 'Taking Care of Business', 'You Ain’t Seen Nothin Yet' and other great songs from that era, but 'Roll on Down the Highway' was one that I would hear as a kid going to hockey games in Canada and I loved it.
"I just had to put a cover song on this record and for a while I thought it would be an April Wine song ... maybe that will appear on the last album of the Amerikan Kaos Trilogy! This was a tough one to do because it’s hard to play like other guitar players, especially the greats, like Randy Bachman! So I kind of went off on my own but kept that vibe and sound of a bit of Van Halen and Jeff Waters in the solo because I just couldn’t pull off the Randy Bachman ... he‘s just got his own style and feel!
"Another cool thing about that is that I got to play it for the guys when I went to Vancouver. I cranked it up at The Armoury Studios and Paul Dean from Loverboy, a friend of mine who was there and with the Mighty Mike Fraser...and they liked this new version of it and I hope a lot of people get to go and revisit BTO...and for those who don’t know that band hopefully you can go listen to them! Oh, and a cool note, Marc LaFrance has been singing on many Annihilator records and the Amerikan Kaos stuff... and on Motley Crue, David Lee Roth, Bon Jovi and many other bands records... but Marc also PLAYS DRUMS for Randy Bachman! Small world."
