Annihilator

Annihilator is a Canadian thrash metal band, formed in Ottawa, Ontario in 1984 by Jeff Waters. Waters is the band's sole constant member and has acted as its guitarist, bandleader, writer, producer, engineer, and occasional bassist and vocalist. Annihilator has released seventeen studio albums and has undergone many line-up changes, with Waters regularly assembling touring or session musicians to perform with him. Along with Sacrifice, Voivod and Razor, Annihilator has been referred to as one of the "Big Four" of Canadian thrash metal. They are also considered to be part of the "second wave" of thrash metal bands from the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Annihilator is the highest-selling Canadian heavy metal group, although most sales have been generated outside of Canada. The band's first two studio albums, Alice in Hell (1989) and Never, Neverland (1990), are considered influential Canadian metal records. Many of their subsequent albums — including their third and only major-label album Set the World on Fire (1993) — also received praise from critics and enjoyed success in Europe and Japan. Their most recent studio album of original material, Ballistic, Sadistic, was released in 2020.