Jeff Waters has been steering the Annihilator ship for over 35 years and with Alice In Hell and Never, Neverland being stone cold classics, Waters has always had to live up to those achievements, for better or worse. The barbaric Ballistic, Sadistic manages to live up to those high expectations and then some with a phenomenal release that has brought the band back to elite status. Waters finds himself more comfortable as a vocalist and the band delivers some of their meanest riffs to date.

An excerpt of a BraveWords feature: Being forced to postpone the 2018 European tour gave Waters the opportunity to build and nurture a new personal life, as well as rebuild Watersound Studios. All of this had a profound effect on how Ballistic, Sadistic turned out, although Waters didn't see it at first.

"Somebody said to me a while ago that this record ‘seems to have some inspiration to it.' I thought that was kind of weird and I wondered what he was trying to say. It sounds simple and stupid, but he tried to explain to me that the music sounds like there was a reason why I wanted to make this album as opposed to doing it as part of the (album / tour / album / tour) cycle. And he was right. There were certain Annihilator eras or years in the past where the album had to be done by a certain time because I had bills to pay. And when you have a label and distributors, there are deadlines that we have to follow. I think the inspiration for Ballistic, Sadistic came from moving over to the UK, figuring I could deal with everything... and there was one additional thing that was happening to the family from outside. Let's say there was someone from the past and in the present causing fear and stress to my wife and her kids, which eventually moved the target to me. I knew I didn't have anything to worry about, but some people are good at making people worry. I helped clean up the mess being fired into the family unit, all while I was trying to build the studio, have a new marriage, be a stepdad."

Which became the seed that spawned some of the most aggressive music to come out of Waters in years.

"You know why? It's a form of therapy for me. I was happy to get rid of the problem and the threat to my family, but music is a healthy way to get my aggressions out. I don't just go into the studio, do my parts and leave everything to the engineer and the producer. I'm involved in the making from start to finish, so there was always something to do for seven months, from writing to recording to photos to video shoots. Everybody has their stories of shitty things happening in their lives. I'm just able to write about it, and it came out of this new album. This is an honest form of music. I've had my hits and misses with songwriting like everyone does, but sometimes you get lucky."

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