...it's a cross between the dead ghost of Alice and Linda Blair from "The Exorcist". It's a kind of a haunting cover but it was different for us because it was more dark cover for us.
Jeff Waters / Annihilator interview, Metal Temple, 2010
I watch a lot of horror movies and do you remember the movie "The Exorcist" with Linda Blair? So, the exorcist girl I think she was in one of my dreams and I woke up very frightened. So, I wanted to make a mix about the exorcist girl and Alice like a dead ghost of Alice.
ANNIHILATOR released their debut album, Alice in Hell, on this day in 1989.
A few of my song titles ("Schizos", "Toxicomania", "Alison Hell", "Phantasmagoria", "Gallery") are all about mind disorders or diseases. "Phantasmagoria" for instance is about a mind disease in which the victim 'sees' ghostly apparitions. These visions multiply and more and more ghosts fill the victims mind until it eat itself up + the victim becomes comatose, usually resulting in death. Fun stuff, eh? (Yup - Metalion) Alot of people may think it's a stupid thing to write about, but at least it is an intricate subject and it's real! Reality is something so many bands forget about in their lyrics, and I think all songs about anything anti nuclear are becoming a bit boring. The music is pretty spooky at times, but we are not into Satan or any Phantoms (huh?) or garbage like that!
Jeff Waters / Annihilator interview, Slayer #5, 1987
I was essentially a teenager into melodic heavy metal, and thrash comes along and bang, I'm really into it. I got started a little later-Alice in Hell came out when I was 23 years old, even though I'd been working on Annihilator stuff since I was 18. But I thought, I'm a guitar player, writing songs and playing solos-I need a singer. I need a drummer. I need a bass player. And I think what happened was, my vision was, like a lot of people that are in bands that are successful or still around, the main guy that's the driving force in the band, they're full-on. This is your life, you don't care about money, girls, booze, drugs, cigarettes, food, nothing, you're just focused on your dreams. Everything is all about the next riff, or learning to be better at this, or learning the new Van Halen solo, watching videos-VHS videos, back in the day. You really are a driving force, if you're like I am.
Jeff Waters / Annihilator interview, Roadrunner Records, 2014