ANNIHILATOR — Set the World on Fire (review)

ANNIHILATOR — Set the World on Fire album cover Album · 1993 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Set the World on Fire" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Canadian thrash/heavy metal act Annihilator. The album was released through Roadrunner Records in August 1993. The band were at this point at the top of their game after releasing two consecutively successful studio albums in "Alice in Hell (1989)" and "Never, Neverland (1990)". Both sold really well and placed Annihilator among the elite of late eighties/early nineties thrash metal acts. However except for bassist Wayne Darley (who would leave shortly after recording the album) and band founder/guitarist Jeff Waters, the whole lineup had been changed before recording "Set the World on Fire" and paired with a more melodic/mainstream songswriting approach, that had some impact on how "Set the World on Fire" ended up sounding and how it was received by fans and critics.

...while the basis in the music is still thrash metal, Annihilator were always on the more melodic side of the fence and their music also always featured a lot of more traditional heavy metal elements. The music on "Set the World on Fire" generally lean more towards a melodic heavy metal sound than a thrash metal ditto even though tracks like "Set the World on Fire", "No Zone" and "Brain Dance" certainly still feature high speed thrash metal riffing (on a related note, the guitar solo in "No Zone" is nothing short of amazing). As a result the album is actually quite a varied listening experience but as a consequence of the variation not necessarily the most consistent one. While his two predecessors were more raw type thrash metal vocalists, new vocalist Aaron Randall is more of a "real" singer who employ a thrash metal singing style.

Other new faces in the lineup are the extremely skilled drummer Mike Mangini (Dream Theater, Extreme, James LaBrie, Steve Vai...etc.) and second guitarist Neil Goldberg. A class ensemble through and through and that´s audible. Paired with the very well sounding production, everything seem to be working in favor of the album. But...because there is a "but" here. Some of the tracks on the album are either not that memorable, formulaic or a little too mainstream pop/rock oriented (some of the lyrics are also downright cringe worthy) and while the best tracks on the album easily warrant at least a 4 star (80%) rating, the tracks that aren´t that interesting bring my rating down to 3.5 stars (70%). We´re still talking a quality release but it could have been better had it been more consistent in quality and style.
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