In a recent Q&A video for the Rock Kommander YouTube channel, ANNIHILATOR guitarist Jeff Waters was asked if he thinks ANNIHILATOR‘s debut album, Alice In Hell (1989), influenced MEGADETH‘s classic fourth LP, Rust In Peace (1990).
Waters responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Okay, so Dave Ellefson and Dave Mustaine, the MEGADETH guys, not all of ’em but some of ’em, have been my friends for a while. And I talked to Dave Mustaine ever since 1989. He asked me to join the band in ’89. I didn’t. And they went on to do the amazing Rust In Peace with Marty Friedman, and we continued touring with TESTAMENT and doing our first record. But, yeah, you’re saying you hear some Alice In Hell in the Rust In Peace album the year later. So there is absolute truth to that, believe it or not.”
“A lot of MEGADETH fans don’t realize it, is that David Ellefson had told, I guess Blabbermouth, the online metal news place, years ago, maybe 10 years, 15 years ago, I’m not sure when, that while MEGADETH was driving to the rehearsals and the writing and recording for the Rust In Peace MEGADETH album, they would listen to ANNIHILATOR‘s Alice In Hell and sing it and drive to the studio every day listening to that record.
“So I had always heard the Rust In Peace album and thought it was awesome and Marty Friedman was doing these amazing guitar solos, but I always thought there’s some parts of Marty Friedman where you hear a blues style, ’cause he’s not a blues guitarist; he has blues and many other styles,” he continued. “But he had a little blues stuff in his solos. And I always thought that maybe he and I had the same influences. And David Ellefson and Nick Menza said that, ‘No, no, no. We listened to your stuff for a whole year on the way to those sessions.’ So I was, like, ‘Hang on, I was like a 20-year-old kid, and I had a little influence on your best album.’
“So, that I can say now is true. You can ask Dave Ellefson or any of those guys. So I will take some credit in the sense that I’m honored that they would be listening and singing my music on the way to record their music and write their music. F**kin’ awesome. Yeah, that’ll go down as my top-ten thing in my life that was really cool.”
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.