Canada’s ANNIHILATOR is the lifework of guitarist Jeff Waters. Founded in 1984, the band took the metal scene by storm with their debut 1989 release “Alice In Hell”, upped the ante with 1990’s “Never, Neverland” and has continued a non-stop career-pattern of releasing records and touring with many of the biggest bands in the metal genre (mostly all outside North America), ever since; cementing ANNIHILATOR as the biggest-selling metal act in Canada’s history.
After 18 months of touring for the band’s latest album “Suicide Society” (nominated for a 2017 Juno Award in the Metal / Hard Rock Album of The Year category), the band is currently finishing up their 16th studio release and is getting ready to headline not only the mighty WACKEN OPEN AIR Festival in Germany (Aug 3), but hit the road for their first Canadian tour since 1993.
The tour will see the band kick off their first date in Victoria, BC on June 13th and travel east wrapping up the tour in Cornwall, ON July 1st during Canada day weekend festivities. This is very big news for Canadian metal fans, both young and “older” whom have been waiting for an ANNIHILATOR tour to return to Canadian soil for over 20 years!
Support on this tour comes from Australia’s MASON whom was ANNIHILATOR’s support in Europe last year & from Montreal, QC thrashers MUTANK who won the acclaimed Wacken Metal Battle Canada contest in 2014 and have also performed at Wacken Open Air.
The band’s founder, Jeff Waters (and guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, producer, engineer, mix engineer, mastering engineer, manager, etc.) was asked how it feels to be “back” touring his home country:
“I have always enjoyed flying the flag for one of the nicest countries and people in the world, despite having very little support from the industry here to play and releasing CDs in Canada. It sure is an honor to be nominated for a Juno, after all these years, and to have the opportunity to tour this great and metal land! It will be some of our best-ever shows this summer. We look forward to meeting the metal fans and to show them what the rest of the world has seen us do every year for decades. It’s about time, eh?!”
ANNIHILATOR has given the metal world a sound that is one of the clearest, most-tasteful mixtures of huge, metal riffs with the idea of the perfect song and some legendary solo shredding as the icing on the cake. Jeff Waters and ANNIHILATOR have been a major influence on countless well-known metal acts and musicians around the world. In fact, countless, successful non-metal acts & musicians cite Waters and Co. as an influence in their careers.
‘Ripping Through Canada Summer 2017 Tour’ (more dates coming)
June 13 – Victoria, BC – Distrikt Nightclub
June 16 – Calgary, AB – Dickens Pub
June 17 – Edmonton, AB – Starlite Room
June 18 – Saskatoon, SK – Saskatoon Event Center
June 19 – Regina, SK – The Exchange
June 20 – Winnipeg, MB – Park Theater
June 23 – Waterloo, ON – Maxwells
June 24 – Toronto, ON – The Opera House
June 26 – Ottawa, ON – The Brass Monkey
June 28 – Quebec City, QC – L’Anti
June 29 – Montreal, QC – Café Campus
June 30 – Cornwall, ON – The House
July 1 – Cornwall, ON – The House
