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

"In answer to a good question on the Annihilator Facebook page, here is my response. The question was why didn't our former touring bassists play on the studio records?

When I write the songs, I don't just write a guitar riff, I write the drums, bass and mostly the vocals/melodies/lyrics. Since I would, for example, write the bass guitar parts entirely, it made no sense to me to let a bassist do it when I wanted it a certain way and got it when I played the part! Another thing people occasionally don't understand is that a live touring musician can also be a not-so-good or even a bad studio musician. They are two different jobs and art forms. Some can do both, of course, but I was always looking for touring players, not writers, so often I would get guys that were good for touring but not so good under the studio scenario. 

Often, out of being nice or occasionally being blackmailed, I would give credit to the occasional singer or musician who wrote nothing (actually not kidding), but sometimes a guy like Ray Hartmann (wickedly awesome drummer) would contribute something, drum-wise, that was so good you had to give him credit, even though the songs were already written. Or some of the singers were good writers; just didn't spend the time doing it! I offered ALL Annihilator singers the opportunity to write ALL the lyrics on ALL the Annihilator records... only some wrote a few songs. Hard to imagine, but some were lazy or had a home or party life that would not let them work hard at their craft. The frustrating part was that guys like Padden and Comeau were AWESOME at writing lyrics, and when I pushed them to write, they came up with VERY cool stuff; and a breath of fresh air to the writing (when one guy does most all of it, it can get repetetive or boring at times!). They just didn't offer many songs. 

On the other hand, only some people have that certain insane drive to do this! Thus, many musicians in Annihilator did not go on to other things in the music business, except a few that come to mind. Neil Goldberg was on the Set The World On Fire CD and touring; he went on to make some killer music-related software and also played some killer guitar on the STWOF record, and the amazing solo on the 'Fantastic Things' song off a 1992 demo. Mike Mangini, of course, Steve Vai / Extreme / Dream Theater were only some of his achievements! Randy Black went to Primal Fear for a while and is a killer drummer. John Bates has had a great career with his rockabilly-style band. Joe Comeau went on to work as a techncian for a well known artist. I might be missing someone; apologies... but out of 40 musicians I've hired into this beast Annihilator, there are not really many that moved up the music biz ladder!"

Annihilator previously posted the following:

"First Annihilator 'Alison Hell' recording live in Val D'or, Quebec, April 16th, 1986. This was a live off the board recording of the band (Jeff Waters - guitar, John Bates - vox, Dave Scott - bass, Paul Malek - drums) and the first full recording of this legendary song. As you can hear, they are kids! Sloppy, messy and full of mistakes but that is how history is made! Note the lyrics and arrangements changed years later, as Jeff Waters changed them to the version we've all heard on the Alice in Hell record 1989."