GuitarInternational.com's Robert Cavuoto has released an interview conducted with ANNIHILATOR leader Jeff Waters. Among other topics, Waters discusses his position in thrash metal history. An excerpt follows:

Q: Are you content with the public’s perception of Annihilator’s place within Thrash Metal’s history?

A: "I never gave a shit about image or what I looked like. Things like that were important to a lot of bands. It sounds stupid and defiant, but it’s just that I never cared about it. I just play my music, and we were lucky enough to have things going so well that we didn’t have to care about that kind of thing. We intentionally and unintentionally dropped out of our own country and the United States in 1993, at a time when traditional heavy metal in the ‘80s and thrash metal was literally dropped by their labels. That was back in the grunge era.

Unless you were PANTERA, BIOHAZARD or SEPULTURA, or along those lines, you were done. There was nobody who wanted to book you, sign you, or do press for you. Obviously, the bigger ones kept going, but they all downgraded and ducked down in North America. JUDAS PRIEST went from playing the stadium in Vancouver to the clubs with Ripper Owens. Slayer was playing arenas, and they went down to playing clubs in Vancouver.

You really had a lot of bands being tested to see if they really had the love of their music. Do you guys want to downgrade and still put records out, or do you want to say fuck it and retire. There’s a good core of these bands, who said fuck this; we’re going to do this and we were one of them. It’s what we love to do. And SLAYER were the top guys here that took a big hit for ten years but never stopped, never gave up and just kept going. That’s my favorite band for carrying metal on through to this point.

There’s another group of guys, TESTAMENT, EXODUS, OVERKILL that a lot of Americans and Canadians don’t realize that Annihilator are part of that group overseas. We all took a hit; we all were struggling. We all had to fight for deals; we all had ticket sales go down; we all had record sales go down, and we all had big lineup changes and frequent ones. We did not like just bail and quit and say "screw it” and get a “real job,” only to reunite 10 – 15 years later when metal was popular again. The bands I mentioned to you were mid-level bands that just went through hell and never stopped. We always released records and always kept touring.

KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, Exodus, Overkill, Testament and Annihilator are having some of our biggest record sales in 15 years. And Testament is just kicking ass around the world right now with their music and touring. So, yeah, it’s a good time.

To answer your question, if I didn’t have the support from Japan, Asia and Europe, all through the ‘90s and 2000s, I wouldn’t have been able to continue and would probably would be a bitter, old man right bitching about the business and what could have been, and what I used to be. I’d probably be really depressed. This is my life, and it’s what I love to do. I’m glad I’m still doing it. It’s also nice to see a lot of the press coming back, or new press discovering us. It’s pretty awesome."

Read the complete interview at this location.

Whether on a festival stage, in a hotel, having dinner or hanging out with their fans, any encounter with the Canadian thrash legend Annihilator and you realize that these guys live and love their metal music. They rock without regret and play with such musical enthusiasm and perfection that the audience's jaws frequently hit the ground in disbelief.

Their new video clip for the song 'No Way Out' (from the new CD, Feast) is, plain and simple, a performance video, displaying what many around the world have dubbed “Canada’s answer to METALLICA”. Many call them the tightest metal band out there, with a most-energetic live show.

This track has everything the listener wants from an Annihilator song; fast thrash riffs, hooks, insane guitar solos and surprising song structures. Dave Padden convinces both on vocals and guitar, the rhythm section (consisting of drummer Mike Harshaw and Alberto Campuzano on bass) plays the song like clockwork and the guitar work of mastermind Jeff Waters is, as always, simply untouchable, with his rare mixture of melody and speed... Clearly obvious why he is heralded as one of the world’s premiere guitar players.

The video accompanies the band on their tour from the airport to the hotel room, from the rehearsal room to the stage at the Wacken Open Air, in front of over 80,000 metal fans.

Annihilator recently issued the following announcement: "Here we go Quebec! Annihilator are proud to announce a special show in Quebec City at the Imperial Theatre on Friday, October 4th. Four bands, including Ottawa's SHOCK will be on the bill plus two kick ass Quebec bands. Jeff Waters will also give away his signature Epiphone Annihilation guitar on-stage and the lucky winner will get to hang out with the band on the stage for the rest of the show! Get tix quick... it is gonna sell out again, like 2011! METAL!"

Annihilator live:

October

4 - Quebec City, QC - Imperial Theatre
10 - Roermond ECI, Netherlands - Cultuurfabriek
11 - Enschede, Netherlands - Atak
12 - Vosselaar, Belgium - Biebob
13 - London, UK - 02 Academy Islington
14 - Manchester, UK - NQ Live
16 - Paris, France - La Machine
18 - Madrid, Spain - But
19 - Barcelona, Spain - Razzmatazz 2
20 - France - Lyon Ninkasi Kao
22 - Winterthur, Switzerland - Gaswerk
23 - Augsburg, Germany - Spectrum
24 - Wien, Austria - Szene
25 - Zlin, Czech Repibulic - Masters Of Rock Cafe
26 - Nürnberg, Germany - Rockfabrik
28 - Mannheim, Germany - Alte Seilerei
29 - Essen, Germany - Turock
30 - Osnabrück, Germany - Lagerhalle
31 - Hamburg, Germany - Knust

November

1 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Pumpehuset
2 - Oslo, Norway - John Dee
3 - Stockholm, Sweden - Klubben
5 - Tampere, Finland - Klubi
6 - Helsinki, Finland - Nosturi
8 - Sankt Petersburg, Russia - Zal Ozhidaniya
9 - Moscow, Russia - Volta