Early years (1984–1988) has also acted as the band's lead vocalist on occasion. Annihilator was formed in
Ottawa,
Ontario, by
Jeff Waters and guitarist
John Bates. Waters said he named the band after the tank that
Eddie Murphy's character rode on in the 1984 film
Best Defense. Waters and Bates wrote and recorded the song "Annihilator" (not to be confused with the song of the same name released on the 1994 album,
King of the Kill). This original version of "Annihilator" was released on the special edition of the band's 2005 album
Schizo Deluxe. Waters and Bates then recruited drummer Paul Malek and bassist Dave Scott. In 1985, the band produced a demo titled "Welcome To Your Death". Bates and Scott left the band before its release, citing "artistic differences" and "personality conflicts". In 1986, Waters and Malek recorded another demo, "Phantasmagoria". A third demo, "Wicked Mystic" / "Word Salad", was recorded by Waters and Malek in 1987 and sent only to labels. Waters then moved to
Vancouver, where he assembled an entire line-up, including drummer Ray Hartmann and former
D.O.A. bassist
Randy Rampage on vocals. In 1988 and 1989, Waters recorded guitar and bass tracks and produced what would become the band's debut album. The band embarked on its first world tour, opening up for
Onslaught in Europe on their
In Search of Sanity tour, and along with
Wrathchild America, they supported
Testament in North America on the latter's
Practice What You Preach tour. The band also opened for
Exodus and
Metal Church. After the tour to support
Alice in Hell ended in December 1989, frontman
Randy Rampage left Annihilator to retain his seniority at a job on the shipping docks in North Vancouver. Rampage was replaced by former
Omen singer Coburn Pharr and the band released their second album,
Never, Neverland, in 1990.
Temporary hiatus, return and more albums (1994–2002) Annihilator temporarily dissolved, but Waters kept the band name going when he, along with drummer Randy Black, recorded and released 1994's
King of the Kill. Bassist Cam Dixon then joined the band, followed by Lou Bujdoso from Meatwagon. In 1996, the band released
Refresh the Demon, which was, for the most part, a return to the speed and technicality of the band's earlier days. That was followed, in the next year, by
Remains, a more industrial metal-oriented album. Waters is the only musician on the album (he used a drum machine); by this time, he was the sole band member. Inspired after seeing
Slayer perform in
Vancouver in the summer of 1998, Waters decided to reunite the
Alice in Hell line-up to record another album. All members apart from bassist Wayne Darley, who had health problems, agreed to reunite. Bassist Russ Bergquist joined the band in Darley's place. This line-up released
Criteria for a Black Widow and toured successfully. However, Rampage was fired following the tour for his erratic and often drunken behaviour. Then-
Overkill guitarist and former
Liege Lord frontman Joe Comeau requested to replace him during the tour, while Curran Murphy replaced Davis on guitar and Randy Black rejoined on drums. During the early 2000s, Annihilator released the albums
Carnival Diablos (2001) and
Waking the Fury (2002), both very critically successful. After considerable success, the band's line-up once again dissolved.
The Dave Padden era (2003–2013) Following years of line-up changes, Jeff Waters decided to work with a touring-only line-up so he recruited Dave Padden as a permanent vocalist/rhythm guitarist, while Waters recruited touring bassists and drummers. Annihilator's first two albums in this three-man band format as Waters played both bass and guitar, with Padden on vocals and a hired drummer were
All for You (2004) and
Schizo Deluxe (2005).
Mike Mangini rejoined for the former album in 2004 and Tony Chappelle was hired for the latter's recording in 2005. In 2007, Annihilator released their twelfth album
Metal. It features several guest performers, such as
Corey Beaulieu (
Trivium),
Willie Adler (
Lamb of God) and
Jeff Loomis (
Nevermore). The band's
self-titled thirteenth album was released in 2010, coming to be in a more modern thrash metal-styled sound. Annihilator returned to Canada for two live shows, making it the first time since 1993 that the band had played live in North America. On July 10, 2011, Annihilator headlined the Quebec City Imperial Theatre to a sold-out crowd. They played the main stage (along with
Kiss and
Motörhead) on July 24, 2011 at Montreal's
Heavy MTL Festival. Annihilator released their fourteenth studio album,
Feast, on August 23, 2013.
Departure of Dave Padden and Suicide Society (2014–2016) In the summer of 2014, Oscar Rangel replaced Al Campuzano, their bassist since 2010. Jeff Waters said on his Facebook that he had actually contacted Wayne Darley, the band's bassist from the classic early 1990s line-up, about having him rejoin, although once again he declined, in Jeff's words "Wayne wanted to do it but couldn't ... personal reasons." The band has continued their touring cycle since then.
Dave Padden left the band sometime in December 2014 via a phone call to Waters, informing him of his desire to step away from the constant touring in order to spend more time with his family. Waters unsuccessfully attempted to persuade Padden to remain in the band, offering him a pay rise. He later admitted in a German radio interview to being emotionally shaken by the departure. After a number of weeks searching for a replacement vocalist, Waters decided that he would handle vocals himself once again, in addition to doing everything but play drums in the studio. Padden's departure was not made public until six months later, in June 2015, when Waters made an announcement on Annihilator's Facebook page, but attaching a YouTube link directly below of audio snippets from various songs on the band's then-upcoming album,
Suicide Society. Canadian metal guitarist Aaron Homma from Killitorous, Erimha and Vital Remains was announced as Paddens replacement on guitar while Waters returned to vocals.
Never, Neverland singer Coburn Pharr surprised audiences when he returned for a short time on the
70000 Tons of Metal cruise in January 2015. Pharr performed the songs "Reduced to Ash", "The Fun Palace", "I Am in Command", "Road to Ruin" and "Stonewall". By April 2015, Annihilator had begun work on their fifteenth studio album. Waters stated that the album's musical direction would be "something quite different." The album, titled
Suicide Society, was released on September 18, 2015. Drummer Mike Harshaw announced via his Facebook page in May 2016 that he had parted ways with Annihilator amicably after four years in order to spend more time with his family as well as to pursue other musical interests as he continued work with his own band, Prismind. Fabio Alessandrini joined Annihilator shortly thereafter. In September 2016, Annihilator played Calgary Metalfest alongside fellow Canadian speed/thrash metal pioneers Exciter, Razor, Sacrifice and a local band Gatekrashör. In late November 2016, the band announced a compilation album, entitled
Triple Threat, which was released through UDR Records on January 27, 2017. The album consists of three discs, including one containing Annihilator's
Jeff Waters, Aaron Homma, and Rich Gray (formerly Hinks) along with other artists playing an acoustic set of the band's most well-known ballads and acoustic songs, all done in single takes. The second and third discs were released as
Blu-ray DVDs, one containing Annihilator's full set at Bang Your Head Festival in Germany, and the other containing a documentary profiling the band's extensive career.
For the Demented, Ballistic, Sadistic and upcoming eighteenth studio album (2017–present) By the end of 2016, Annihilator had begun working on their sixteenth studio album. Waters stated, "On the next one, the changes I'm gonna make… I only said two things. I've got all these people telling me, 'You've gotta go back to this album,' or that album, or that album, or that album. 'You've gotta do this,' 'You've gotta do that.' So what I do is I block it out. But I've decided that I'm going to not worry about catchy, commercial choruses — 'commercial,' as in you remember it, where you intentionally make that chorus the most important part of the song and you want people to remember that one every time. That kind of is the opposite of what I used to do in the earlier days. In the earlier days, I would go, 'I don't care about the chorus being the main part; I want the whole song to be cool.' So therefore the choruses were not as commercial or catchy. And they remained heavy back then; the choruses would end up being heavy. Whereas on my
Suicide Society record I just did, you could have a heavy song, but then you hit the chorus and you go, 'Woah, that's pretty mainstream stuff in the choruses.' And the other thing was, since I'm such a fan of so many bands, I let myself go a little bit on the last album with being too blatantly obvious with my influences and my musical loves as a fan. So you really heard a song that had a lot of the
Master of Puppets era of music from
Metallica, and you really heard a
Megadeth-y song on there, and you really heard in my vocals some
Hetfield and
Mustaine-isms. And I think that was great, as a fan, to get it out, but I think I need to do more of my own thing on the next record." In February 2017, Waters said that the sixteenth Annihilator studio album was being co-produced and co-engineered by bassist Rich Gray, making it the "first time I've actually had somebody else in the studio since 1990 (
Never, Neverland) working with me on stuff." On September 12, 2017, it was announced that the album was titled
For the Demented, and would be released on November 3; more details on the album, including track listing and artwork, and the music video for "Twisted Lobotomy" were released on the same day. In support of
For the Demented, Annihilator (along with
Death Angel) opened for
Testament on the latter's European
Brotherhood of the Snake tour, which took place in November and December 2017. The band toured Europe twice in 2018; first with Testament and
Vader in March and April, and toured there again from October to December. On August 14, 2018, former Annihilator vocalist
Randy Rampage (who sang on the albums
Alice in Hell and
Criteria for a Black Widow) died of an apparent heart attack, at the age of 58. In September 2018, Waters reported that Annihilator would release their seventeenth studio album in 2019. He later confirmed that it would be released in January 2020. On October 10, 2019, Annihilator released "I Am Warfare" as the lead single of the album, now titled
Ballistic, Sadistic, which was released on January 24, 2020. In 2019, Waters got married and moved to England. The band released
Metal II, a near complete re-recording of their 2007 album
Metal, on February 18, 2022, which serves as a tribute to
Eddie Van Halen and
Alexi Laiho, the latter of whom appears posthumously on one of the album's re-recorded tracks "Downright Dominate", which also features
Dave Lombardo on drums and
Stu Block on vocals. In January 2022, Waters announced that he would be once again stepping down as lead vocalist and focusing solely on lead guitar while Block would handle lead vocals on the band's future live shows. In June 2023, Waters announced on social media that he had completed work on the next Annihilator album, though as of February 2026 a new album has not been released and there have been no updates since the initial announcement. Former Annihilator frontman Coburn Pharr died on February 25, 2025, at the age of 62. ==Influences==