ANNIHILATOR — Bag of Tricks (review)

Boxset / Compilation · 1994 · Thrash Metal

3.5/5 · 2021-02-16
UMUR

"Bag of Tricks" is a compilation album by Canadian thrash/heavy metal act Annihilator. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in October 1994, only a few days after the release of the band´s fourth full-length studio album "King of the Kill (1994)". The latter was released through Music For Nations, after Annihilator was dropped by Roadrunner Records following the commercial failure of "Set the World on Fire (1993)". Apparently Roadrunner Records still had the rights to release archive material, because "Bag of Tricks" features a combination of rare and unreleased demo and live recordings from the years 1986-1991. Jeff Waters is credited as producer, so "Bag of Tricks" was probably, at least to some extent, released by mutual consent.

"Bag of Tricks" features three tracks from the 1986 "Phantasmagoria" demo ("Ligeia", which was the fourth track on the demo was left off because of CD time restraints). The "Phantasmagoria (1986)" demo was the demo which secured Annihilator their recording deal with Roadrunner Records, and it features guitarist Jeff Waters on vocals, but "Bag of Tricks" also features pre-production demos of tracks from both "Never, Neverland (1990)" and "Set the World on Fire (1993)", some varying a great deal from the final studio versions. Especially because the pre-production demo tracks for "Never, Neverland (1990)" feature Randy Rampage on vocals (among them the tracks "Back to the Crypt" and "Gallery", where only sections of the songs ended up being used on the title track for the final album) and the pre-production demo tracks for "Set the World on Fire (1993)" feature Coburn Pharr on vocals (among them a track titled "Fantastic Things", which didn´t make the final cut for the album). Both vocalists had been replaced by other singers on the final studio versions of the tracks. As bassist Wayne Daley handles vocals on "Fantastic Things" and Waters handles the vocals on the early demo tracks, there are actually vocal contributions from four different vocalists on the compilation.

In addition to the 1986 demo tracks and the pre-production demo tracks from "Never, Neverland (1990)" and "Set the World on Fire (1993)", "Bag of Tricks" features a remastered version of "Alison Hell" (from the band´s debut full-length studio album "Alice in Hell (1989)"), an extended mix version of "The Fun Palace" (which is 30 seconds longer than the album version on "Never, Neverland (1990)"), and four live tracks. "Human Insecticide" features Randy Rampage on vocals and was originally featured on the 1990 Roadrunner Records compilation album "Thrash The Wall", while "W.T.Y.D.", "World Salad", and the AC/DC cover "Live Wire", feature Coburn Pharr on vocals. The two former were previously released on the April 1991 "Stonewall" single, while the latter is previously unreleased.

Stylistically the music is melodic thrash metal/heavy metal, delivered by technically skilled musicians. The sound production varies from relatively lo-fi on the early demo tracks, to pretty good sound quality on the remaining tracks (including the live tracks). Needless to say that a compilation of rare and unreased demo and live material is usually a hardcore fan item, and that goes for "Bag of Tricks" too. The overall quality of the compilation is relatively high, but it´s not a good starting point for the uninitiated. A 3.5 star (70%) is deserved.