All for You

All for You isn’t nearly as much of a failure as you’ve been led to think. It’s actually a excellent album in many places.

The most controversial thing about this album would be the vocalist, Dave Padden. Padden replaces Joe Comeau, and those are huge shoes to fill. He is hated with a passion by many metallers because he does modern hardcore vocals once in a while. His hardcore screams are not nearly as high pitched or as “forced” as many of the modern hardcore vocals are. He doesn't sound like he’s trying to scream his lungs out the whole time. So for the hardcore style, Padden isn’t too annoying. But what many don’t understand about Padden is that he uses a variety of vocal styles in addition to hardcore screams. The majority of what comes out of his mouth is sung cleanly. Padden has an excellent midrange singing voice. He also does pretty good thrash shouts on the faster songs on the album. When compared to previous Annihilator vocalists, he stands very well. He’s lightyears ahead of Randy Rampage, more controlled than Randall, less whiney than Pharr, and has a much better range than Jeff. I’d say that the only other Annihilator vocalist who’s better would be Comeau. Padden’s performance here shows that he is definitely worthy of being in the band.

Jeff handles guitar and bass, so you know what to expect. The riffs and solos are great as always. But it’s a shame that the band was trimmed to a three-piece like this, because it was pretty cool having a stable, five-member band for two consecutive albums. Having another lead player really helped boost the lead parts. Oh, well. You can’t have everything I guess.

Mike Mangini handles the drums excellently. This album has a lot of variety, and Mike seems to play the right thing for all of the different songs thrown at him. His style is very tight and solid for this type of music.

And now for the music! As mentioned before, this album is a very diverse one. AfY is like a well-balanced meal that has components from all parts of the food pyramid. You’ve got a couple of all-out thrashers, a few groovers with awesome riffs and vocals, and a few plain traditional metal masterpieces (those styles just mentioned would represent the healthy food groups).

Even the tip of the pyramid (the junk food group) is represented here. But the problem is that Jeff doesn’t “use sparingly” like the food guide says to. The junk food on this album would be mainly two songs: “The One” and “Holding On.” And why is that? Well, the answer is simple: they are ballads. I’m not talking about awesome, haunting ballads like “Fade to Black” or “Still Loving You.” I mean shit ballads, sappy love ballads that have absolutely no place on a metal album of any kind. For fuck’s sake, these would be right at home on any pop radio station. What’s worse is that every Jeff Waters love ballad starts out in the same damn way. Don’t believe me? Well just listen to all of the ballads in previous Annihilator albums. The main musical structure for all of the ballads is comprised of 4-7 note scales on acoustic guitar. The pitches of the notes start at a certain point, go up a few notes, go down a few notes and usually return to the first note. I find it impossible to tell many of the ballads apart because the scales sound almost identical to one another. Note to Jeff: please stop with the fuckin ballads; you’re killing me, man!


Enough of my ranting, let’s get onto the songs!

“All for You” is the first song here, and it’s a great one. At first it sounds like a groove song in the vein of mid-nineties Pantera. But all of a sudden halfway through the song Jeff comes in with an awesome melodic riff, and Padden starts showing off his wonderful clean vocals. The lyrics here are quite serious, about Jeff’s conniving ex-wife, and Padden’s hardcore screams work perfectly to express anger. Kickass way to start the album out.

“Dr. Psycho” is pretty much self-explanatory as far as lyrics go. It’s definitely not the first song about evil doctors, but the music makes up for it five-fold. After a dreary acoustic intro, it becomes a great midpaced thrasher with lots of double bass. Padden seamlessly shifts between thrash and clean vocals. Jeff unleashes a really melodic solo section towards the end of the song. He really knows how to keep a song from even close to getting boring.

“Demon Dance” is the album’s first all-out thrasher. After two midpaced songs, it feels like it’s going at ludicrous speed. It’s not much slower than “Darkness Descends,” to be honest. Jeff eventually slows things down a bit for an awesome solo for a couple minutes, then it’s back to thrashing again! The song ends in a rather silly way, with Padden saying “dance, poo” over and over again. It’s almost a given that every Annihilator album will have one or two songs with nonsense/insane lyrics, and that’s what this song’s purpose is.

After an awesome thrash attack comes herpes-sore-in-your-ear love ballad number one. There’s nothing more to say here other than SKIP THIS!

At this point I’m just about in tears from sonic ear rape, but thankfully “Bled” comes on and completely redeems the album. It’s hard to describe exactly what genre this song belongs to. I guess you could say it is a traditional metal song with a downtuned few thrash riffs in places. The verses are mainly midpaced, and the solo section is played on an awesome D-beat (think of Diamond Head’s “Helpless). This song has a very “complete” feel to it when it finishes. It’s like eating a meal that really hits the spot. For those who are prejudiced against Padden but haven’t heard him yet, check this song out. Unquestionably the best song on this album.

After the masterpiece “Bled” we are treated to what I’m gonna refer to as “Schizos Are Never Alone, Part 4.” So why do I call it that? Well, for one, it’s longer, like the Schizo songs are. Two, it shifts tempo abruptly many times throughout the song. And three, the lyrics are completely based on schizophrenia, as you may have figured out by the title of the song. This song is really an awesome eight-minute summary of the album, as it incorporates all styles used, even the ballads in some sections (the ballad section actually works great in the context of this song).

Well, for two songs we’ve heard nothing but variety and progression. But when “Rage Absolute” comes up, it’s time for some more thrash! It’s another really fast one like “Demon Dance,” using the good ol’ 1-2 thrash beat.

The album has had three great songs in a row, but out of nowhere comes another pointless love ballad. This time Jeff sings on it and it sounds even worse because Jeff is really whiney compared to Dave. The lyrics were apparently "too personal to let anybody else sing it." How cheesy.

Okay, I'm ready for a song with some sign of balls again, and Annihilator certainly delivers with “The Nightmare Factory.” It’s pretty much a groove metal number, but it’s really fast for groove. And thankfully, Jeff changes the riffs before it gets boring. I wish more groove was done like this, in a way that doesn't bore the listener to tears.

I was hoping that Annihilator would have ended the album with a full-out speed metal song or something, but unfortunately we are stuck with another “tip of the food pyramid” song. “The Sound of Horror” is a pointless instrumental that goes nowhere. Thankfully it isn’t one of Jeff’s generic acoustic melodies. It is just a plodding groover that doesn’t really ever have a change in riff or tempo, like all of the other non-ballad songs on this album. It just reminds me of why I hate most groove metal. After several highs and lows, the album ends on an unfortunate low.

All for You is one of those albums that can be considered “flawed classics.” When it works, it fucking kills. But when it isn’t awesome, it fails miserably. If you are looking for modern thrash that isn’t totally one-dimensional and bland, be sure to pick this one up.