Annihilator (band)

Annihilator
Annihilator in 2016. From left to right: Rich Gray, Jeff Waters, and Aaron Homma.
Background information
Origin	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Thrash metal heavy metal
Discography	Annihilator discography
Years active	1984–present
Labels	Roadrunner Epic Attic Hypnotic CMC International Music for Nations Metal-Is SPV AFM Marquee Earache Riot
Members	Jeff Waters Aaron Homma Rich Gray Fabio Alessandrini Stu Block
Past members	John Bates Randy Rampage Ray Hartmann Coburn Pharr Dave Scott Davis Wayne Darley Neil Goldberg Mike Mangini Aaron Randall Randy Black Joe Comeau Dave Padden Tony Chappelle Ryan Ahoff Mike Harshaw Paul Malek Anthony Greenham Cam Dixon Lou Bujdoso
Website	annihilatormetal.com

Annihilator is a Canadian thrash metal band founded in Ottawa in 1984 by Jeff Waters. Waters is the band's sole constant member and has acted as its guitarist, bandleader, writer, producer, engineer, and occasional bassist and vocalist. Annihilator has released seventeen studio albums and has undergone many line-up changes, with Waters regularly assembling touring or session musicians to perform with him. Along with Sacrifice, Voivod and Razor, Annihilator is known as one of the "Big Four" of Canadian thrash metal.^[1] They are also considered to be part of the "second wave" of thrash metal bands from the late 1980s and early 1990s.^[2][3]

Annihilator is the highest-selling Canadian heavy metal group,^[4] although most sales have been generated outside of Canada. The band's first two studio albums, Alice in Hell (1989) and Never, Neverland (1990), are considered to be influential Canadian metal records. Many of their later albums — including their third and only major-label album Set the World on Fire (1993) — also received praise from critics, and enjoyed success in Europe and Japan.^[5][6][7] Their most recent studio album of original material, Ballistic, Sadistic, was released in 2020.