Steve Newton at The Georgia Straight recently caught up with Annihilator frontman/founder Jeff Waters and discussed the band's 30+ year career. An excerpt is available below.

Waters: "The first four albums we did had four different singers and four different lineups, and they were four very big albums outside of North America for us. So it’s kinda like the most bizarre path any band’s ever taken in metal. And then from then on we just sailed through in our European and Japanese and South American careers and kept releasing up-and-down albums qualitywise, saleswise—which is kinda normal. If you’re the main songwriter and just going forever, you’re gonna have your ups and downs on what you’re doing."

"We play for anywhere from 400 to 80,000 people," says Waters of his band’s status in Europe. "We’ll play clubs and then all of a sudden we’re coheadlining a show with Slayer somewhere in Bulgaria. It varies. So it’s not a setup for massive commercial success,” he adds, “but it sure is a setup for a pretty good life and being able artistically to do what you want."

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After 18 months of touring for Annihilator’s latest album, Suicide Society (nominated for a 2017 Juno Award in the Metal / Hard Rock Album Of The Year category), the band is currently finishing up their 16th studio release and is getting ready to headline not only the mighty Wacken Open Air festival in Germany (August 3rd), but hit the road for their first Canadian tour since 1993.

The tour will see the band kick off their first date in Victoria, BC on June 13th and travel east wrapping up the tour in Cornwall, ON July 1st during Canada Day weekend festivities. This is very big news for Canadian metal fans, both young and “older” whom have been waiting for an Annihilator tour to return to Canadian soil for over 20 years.

Support on this tour comes from Australia's Mason, whom was Annihilator’s support in Europe last year, and from Montreal, QC thrashers Mutank, who won the acclaimed Wacken Metal Battle Canada contest in 2014 and have also performed at Wacken Open Air.

The band’s founder, Jeff Waters, was asked how it feels to be “back” touring his home country: “I have always enjoyed flying the flag for one of the nicest countries and people in the world, despite having very little support from the industry here to play and releasing CDs in Canada. It sure is an honor to be nominated for a Juno, after all these years, and to have the opportunity to tour this great and metal land! It will be some of our best-ever shows this summer. We look forward to meeting the metal fans and to show them what the rest of the world has seen us do every year for decades. It’s about time, eh?!”

The updated tour schedule, now including a Vancouver show, is as follows:

June
13 - Victoria, BC - Distrikt Nightclub
15 - Vancouver, BC - The Rickshaw Theater
16 - Calgary, AB - Dickens Pub
17 - Edmonton, AB - Starlite Room
18 - Saskatoon, SK - Saskatoon Event Center
19 - Regina, SK - The Exchange
20 - Winnipeg, MB - Park Theater
23 - Waterloo, ON - Maxwells
24 - Toronto, ON - The Opera House
26 - Ottawa, ON - The Brass Monkey
28 - Quebec City, QC - L’Anti
29 - Montreal, QC - Café Campus
30 - Cornwall, ON - The House

July
1 - Cornwall, ON - The House

Testament have announced dates for a European tour this fall. Joining the band for the tour will be Annihilator and Death Angel. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, June 13th at 10 AM, CET.

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)