Frenzied guitar and double bass drumming are the first notes heard on the nine track (49 minute) Feast, the first studio album in over three years, although that eponymous “disc”never saw a physical release in North America, available solely through I Tunes. Dave Padden still handles most of the vocals and second guitar duties, with Jeff Waters being the mastermind, as always.

‘No Way Out’, a tune debuted at Wacken, features some of the off kilter guitar rhythms and clickety-clack drums that long-time ANNIHILATOR fans crave. ‘Smear Campaign’ bounces along: a speedy, punk fueled romp, as opposed to the funk begun ‘No Surrender’, which also alternates into gruff vocal, staccato, industrial territory. First toe-stubbing in the batch. ‘Wrapped’, the shortest choice, at 3:46 is another hyped up, jump around the room type song. ‘Perfect Angel Eyes’ is an acoustic begun, gradually building love ballad, through and through. Not rock and certainly not recognizable as ANNIHILATOR. The final trio are all lengthy compositions, each closing in on seven minutes and the ‘One Falls, Two Rise’ finale clocks in at 8:33. ‘Demon Code’ seems a bit autobiographical, a riff heavy ride. More acoustics crop up, on the start of ‘Fight The World’, but is soon joined/drowned out by a tasteful electric. Abrupt shift and all the subtleties that opened the track are out the window, in a rolling thrash attack, short on lyrics, apart from the titular phrase. The first 2 ½ minutes of the closing number is jangly guitar hard rock, then more meandering Waters, flowing downhill, but taking its time getting there, investigating a little eddy here and there. It ends, much as it began, a lone six-string running an endless loop.

One format of Feast comes packaged with a bonus disc, containing 15 re-recorded early works.