Wall of Mouths

Jeff Waters is great guitarrist and about the main thing that makes this band interesting for me. Over the years they have releases some pretty solid albums (the last one I liked was Schizo Deluxe), but also plenty of duds.

Amongst most thrash bands that I listen to I would rate them OK, but not fantastic. I think they have struggled to find a definitive line up at any point of their existance.

I would say they are a great band to catch live - the songs will probably sound better than on some of the original recordings.

Heh, that about sums up what I was thinking about them. Just had the time to listen a bit more to the albums. Alice In Hell is a plain good album, but Never Neverland is truly fantastic, the first 5 songs or so are all catchy coupled with indeed great guitar work. I listened more closely to the Fun Palace and its indeed great. So far my personal favourite is Phantasmagoria, I think.

The inconsistent lineup (one of the most inconsistent of all time, it seems) was probably what caused some albums to not work out so well? I know why the first two singers left but I wonder why the lineup was that inconsistent? I think I read somewhere some of the singers they had over the years weren’t too great. Anyways, what other albums apart from Schizo Deluxe do you reckon worth buying? (not that I’m going to buy anymore CD’s anytime soon yet, but it’ll be good to know regardless :) )

I think I’ll check them out live - must hurry to catch my ticket.

Yeah, my Booklet says ‘Alice in Hell performed by Jeff Waters - All Lead, Rhythm, Classical and bass guitars, backing vocals’. Busy bee. They have a new album ‘Annihilator’. The style seems to have changed a lot. Megadeth… their frontman rocks, he was hella funny on the documentary about the making of Number of the Beast, I’ve been planning to buy a Megadeth album for some time now : ) I understand what you’re saying but isn’t that also a bit typical for Thrash Metal bands? Line up changes may indeed not be bad but I prefer to get used to a guy and think it helps if at least the core of a band stays the same. I think it’s also good if the musicians are about on the same level of talent, which doesn’t appear to be the case with Annihilator and then indeed you can get the problem you mentioned ; ) Thanks for the information.

Just came back from the gig, I’m so glad I went through the effort to make it! The Biebob’s a small place with a capacity of only 500 or so and the gig was originally planned in the bigger Trix but they probably didn’t sell enough tickets so they moved it - man people were wrong not to come! The man’s a genius. Not just his guitar playing, but stage act also. The rest of the band were good as well. The drummer nicknamed ‘Stoneface’ is hella scary. Because the place was so small it was possible to get awfully close to the stage, and Jeff Waters gave me a high five during Ultra-Motion! ^_^ They played less songs from the first two albums than expected, but the songs I didn’t know still blew me away.

Other memorable moments, before I forget them:

- Someone crowdsurfed over. When we put him down, it turned out he was at least 70! I’m glad we didn’t drop him.
- Some tattooed guy crawled on stage during the last song and sung Alice In Hell.
- Jeff shook his head at a guy trying to get a picture with his girlfriend and Jeff on it, then crouched down while playing so the guy could better take the picture - she only noticed when her husband showed her it. I don’t have to tell you how she reacted ;)
- The band all sat down to play two easy songs Jeff Waters claimed they hadn’t played despite people shouting and throwing things at them for being ‘too mellow’, saying they were going ‘Bon Jovi style’ for a while. One was Phoenix Rising, the other I don’t remember the title. It was a welcome break, since the athmosphere was really good and the crowd, though small, went wild all the time.
- Phantasmagoria!

The current singer’s been there 8 years - must be some kind of record. He could sing all the songs pretty well, good thing he’s a consistent member.

You know what’s great? The compilation album ‘Total Annihilation’ is available for fast and easy legal download from their site, you just had to give up a random e-mail address. It features a good deal of the tracks they played yesterday, so it comes at the exact right time! It’s not like I don’t have cash left to spend, but I just don’t feel like spending it right now, and I don’t like downloading illegally so ^^

Downloaded that Total Annihilation thing and I’m enjoying it a lot. I’ll have to look into these guys a bit more.

Going by ‘Thefan’s comments about the gig above, Waters sounds like a decent enough bloke.
Always good to see a band appreciating their fans. Makes me want to go out and get more of their stuff.
And I really want to go see them live now, too.