Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice caught up with guitarist vocalist Jeff Waters of Canada's Annihilator in Montreal, Canada on June 29th as they were nearing the end of their Cross Canadian tour.

Waters spoke about the lyrical theme and concept that was running through the upcoming new Annihilator album, he said "This new album has more of a theme, I finally got a theme on a record the whole way through. I didn't want to just try do a theme based on a book or story or movie or whatever. I just took a theme from out of the mind, good, bad, craziness, addictions. Everything to do with the mind, so every song has something to do with the mind, good or bad of interesting things about the mind. "

Jeff Waters went on to talk about his influence or Eddie Van Halen and Dave Mustaine in his music, he said, “there are no songs in Annihilator that directly relate to Van Halen which is ironic cause Van Halen is my favorite guitar player. Eddie Van Halen would just sit there and the tape would role and play a solo, whereas I would structure and rehearse over and over again. Since 2005 I sort of got what he was doing and said I’m just going to roll the tape and just go and that's a lot of my solos now just one takes. As for Dave Mustaine, there are a few, the Mustanisms came in on very early Annihilator albums and they were directly related to So Far, So Good, So What."

In the interview Jeff Waters also hinted at a possible tour with Judas Priest.

Annihilator is wrapping up their Canadian tour and then heading off to Europe in the fall to tour with Testament and Death Angel.

Tour dates:

November
11 - Weissenhäusser Strand, Germany - Metal Hammer Paradise (Testament only)
12 - Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
14 - Berlin, Germany - Astra
15 - Warsaw, Poland - Progresja
16 - Kosice, Slovakia Collosseum
17 - Wroclaw, Poland - A2
18 - Budapest, Hungary - Barba Negra
19 - Brno, Czech Republic - Sono Centrum
20 - Vienna, Austria - Arena
22 - Wiesbaden, Germany - Schlachthof
23 - Munich, Germany - Backstage
24 - Saarbrücken, Germany - Garage
25 - Stuttgart, Germany - LKA Longhorn
26 - Ljubljana, Slovenia - Kino Siska
27 - Nürnberg, Germany - Löwensaal
28 - Pratteln, Switzerland - Z7
30 - Bologna, Italy - Estragon

December
1 - Milano, Italy - Live Club
2 - Fribourg, Switzerland - Fri-Son
3 - Toulouse, France - Bikini
4 - Madrid, Spain - Riviera
6 - Lyon, France - Transbordeur
7 - Nantes, France - Stereolux
8 - Paris, France - Bataclan
9 - Oberhausen, Germany - Ruhrpott Metal Meeting
10 - Haarlem, Netherlands - Patronaat

(Photo - Jasmina Vrcko)