Annihilator frontman/founder Jeff Waters has checked in with the following summer festival update:

"Just arrived in Frankfurt after finishing up a killer summer festival run... Awesome fans, friends, festivals, food metal!! Wacken, Rock Fest, Oulu, Czech Rep., Barcelona..amazing. Sadly, one of the most amazing festivals (that we hadn't played before), Alcatraz in Belgium, did not go well for us. I guess you say a 'perfect storm' of everything going wrong! 

Without going into the many details of this storm, we arrived too late to the festival to do our usual equipment checks (shuttles not co-ordinated, flights, bus, etc). Our lovely guitar tuners were all calibrated to different turnings (quite mysterious, as we have TWO guitar techs!?!) So after one song, realizing that at least one of us is tuned totally different to the others, we tried tuning. Each tuner gave a different tuning (for players: 440, drop D, half step down, drop half step down!), so basically nothing I tuned to was in key with the other guys. My tech panicked. I panicked. It sucked. So after a while trying to figure it out, I called the show off (and threw one of the tuners at our backdrop; the backdrop survived! Hehe!).

Total apologies to the fans and especially to the festival people who really tried hard to fix the transportation issues and other issues we encountered. If I recall correctly, I don't think we've ever had to walk off a stage before and cancel the rest of our set?!? Totally sucked but maybe we can come back to that kick-ass festival again. See you Belgian's in the fall!

Life rolls on! Back to Canada for a very short break and then it's our European headline tour... also going to likely post an audio track soon from another track from Suicide Society! Very mixed opinions of the title track but that is normal for Annihilator! The next track you hear will be totally different! 

See you on tour soon with the 15th Annihilator studio metal record!"

Annihilator will release their brand new (and 15th) studio album, Suicide Society, on September 18th via UDR Music worldwide and the band has debuted the title track from the forthcoming album.

As usual, guitar wizard Jeff Waters handles all songwriting duties, plays all guitar & bass, engineers, produces, mixes and masters Suicide Society… and Waters is also back commanding lead vocal duties, as he did on the critically acclaimed King Of The Kill (1994), Refresh The Demon (1996), Remains (1997) and other Annihilator albums over the years.

Waters on his return to vocal duties: “Dave (Padden/vocalist from 03-14) and I have, essentially, been Annihilator since 2003 but he resigned last December, citing having had enough of touring, being away from home and other commitments. I thank him for his 11 years with Annihilator. That said, Annihilator and I are known for never giving up and, occasionally, coming up with something even better than its former offering(s): this is undeniably the case with Suicide Society!”

Waters later elaborated on his initial statement: "Those who expect a King Of The Kill vocal are in for something interesting! I intentionally tried to avoid the cliché metal vocal/rock stuff I did then (but didn't realize I was doing it then!) and weed out the bad in my voice and style; try to find the good stuff and only do those things! I guess you will be the judge but I am stoked!"

With Suicide Society, Annihilator goes headfirst into some of the most technically perfect, crisp, and crushingly taut, riffage Waters has ever produced. Although Waters’ vocals keep traces of stylings from his King Of The Kill album, they now evoke a surprising blend of legends such as Staley, Osbourne, Hetfield and Mustaine. This, in a twisted way, mirrors Waters’ signature blend of riffing, drums grooves and bass; all drawing from multiple sources and genres.

Waters has built a worldwide reputation as being a premier guitarist and songwriter; the conciseness and arrangement of “Creepin’ Again” is both an air-guitarist’s dream and a sharp reminder of this. The gloriously-brutal thrash of “My Revenge” calls up a vintage of ’85 with the technical chops of 2015. The neo-classic title track defiantly expresses anger at the state of world affairs, while offering up hope in closing. With the multi-layered power of the anthem “Snap”, Waters illustrates the diversity of Annihilator’s sound, without sacrificing one decibel of attack.

“Metal fans will likely sport evil, satisfied grins on their faces, when they hear this record”, chuckles Waters, “but in the words of Joe Perry: “Let the Music Do the Talking”!”

Tracklisting:
"Suicide Society"
"My Revenge"
"Snap"
"Creepin’ Again"
"Narcotic Avenue"
"The One You Serve"
"Break, Enter"
"Death Scent"
"Every Minute“

Audio clips: