earMusic announces the new single from Annihilator's upcoming Metal II album is "Romeo Delight," which is a Van Halen cover. Watch the video below.

Metal II, which arrives February 18, kicks off this long-term campaign, which will include special configurations, additional bonus material, exclusive and previously unheard new tunes from the band.

"There was something about Women And Children First," muses Annihilator's Jeff Waters. "It was massively brutal attitude meeting aggression - meets a DLR-fronted party. You have to remember when this came out. 'Romeo Delight' is the most 'heavy' song from VH, in my (and Kerry King's!) opinion. The photos on the cover/back cover of WACF were impactful. It was a green cover and it was a photo of the band posing for a record cover shot and instead of blowing that photo up to the full size of the LP, they cropped it so it was a third the size of the record and everything around it was green. I would stare at the front and back pics for hours! Eddie was like a second father in a way. Millions [of others] probably feel that way too and only fans of his from back then could understand this."

He continues, "His playing, writing, performance, and smile were second to none. EVER. He was a superb writer, lead guitar innovator, genius rhythm player, and was able to build a gear empire. He took chances. Did his own thing. It worked. Millions and more will mourn him, as long as the future world likes music. But we also will be celebrating forever, as musicians will continue to hand down the 'EVH-Influenced-Musical-Genes' to future generations!"

Metal II has been given an incredible overhaul with the one and only Dave Lombardo (Dead Cross, ex-Slayer) killing the drums and lead vocals "re-invented" by the great Stu Block (Into Eternity).

Waters passed over mixing duties to legendary engineer Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Van Halen) and it was remastered by Maor Appelbaum. The guest list on the album is huge with more than a dozen killer artists from bands like Lamb Of God, Arch Enemy, Children Of Bodom, Nevermore, In Flames, Trivium, Danko Jones, Anvil, The Haunted and Lynam: One big metal party!

“Dave was in my favourite band ever (Slayer),” Waters gushes “and continues to evolve and play in many diverse bands, like Misfits, Suicidal Tendencies, Dead Cross, Mr. Bungle and many other projects. It was an honour to be on the same record as Lombardo. And he uses the Reign In Blood ride cymbal!! Yes! The ACTUAL ride cymbal we hear on that classic record.”

Waters reveals that, “Stu has been the vocalist that I have (publicly) wanted to be Annihilator’s singer, ever since I heard him in the Canadian band Into Eternity, but I never got the opportunity to get him! He is the next generation of amazing vocalists that is grabbing the microphone from such icons as Dickinson and Halford. And our paths SHOULD have crossed a long time ago, but we are here now!”

“So I got a hold of them both,” Waters continues, “and they both loved the tunes and both said ‘FUCK YES’! And I said to Stu, ‘you’ve got three takes’, so there’s blemishes and warts and fuck-ups everywhere. And I said the same to Dave, ‘get it done’. And watching pros do this is mind-blowing because you don’t have the best sounds, but you have the best players.”

Out on February 18, you can pre-order Metal II via the links below:

- Ltd. Orange Vinyl
- Ltd. Blue Vinyl
- Black Vinyl
- CD Digipak

Tracklisting:

"Chasing The High" (ft. Willie Adler, Lamb Of God)
"Downright Dominate" (ft. Alexi Laiho, Children Of Bodom)
"Army Of One" (ft. Steve ‘Lips' Kudlow, Anvil)
"Couple Suicide" (ft. Danko, Danko Jones and Angela Gossow, Arch Enemy)
"Heavy Metal Maniac" (ft. Dan Beehler, Exciter and Allan Johnson, Exciter) – Cover Song
"Haunted" (ft. Jesper Strömblad, In Flames)
"Romeo Delight" - Cover Song
"Detonation" (ft. Jacob Lynam, Lynam)
"Clown Parade" (ft. Jeff Loomis, Nevermore)
"Smothered" (ft. Anders Björler, The Haunted)
"Kicked" (ft. Corey Beaulieu, Trivium)

"Downright Dominate" video: