Reviewer from ‘Down Under’
Vs
Jeff Waters (Annihilator)

This is the review that started it all, the feud between myself, and Annihilator’s Mr Jeff Waters. I placed the review on amazon.com, on November 29th after receiving the CD, and later to follow; a number of emails from Exciter fans all over the world asking me to “Please Explain?” meaning “what happened to all the remastering and extras?”. I thought I’d investigate further, and after some careful research and fan feedback into the matter, I came up with the following review:

Remastered??? The ‘Phantom Remastered’ Classic. Oh dear!!! Once a while some good news breaks out about a long forgotten classic metal-treasure that’s about to hit the stores all over again, which maybe the very last time, not to mention all this supposed re-mastering and extras, just to name a few, that will be featured on this very one and only past loved one. So what happens next? Well……….the dedicated head banger can’t wait to get his greasy little fingers on it, without having to pull out his vinyl copy that has been played something like 1000 times, and all you can hear on it now is some pest distortion remenisering of the good old metal days. Well guys, this was supposed to be the way that one and only legendary ‘VIOLENCE and FORCE’ was to enter back into your lives, this one more, but last time…….so I thought!!! Sadly, they shouldn’t have even bothered. It is no different than the STEAMHAMMER (SPV) release many years ago, and even further than that, no different than the MEGAFORCE ‘2 for the price of one’ that was released even before that. The worst part of it all is that it still ***DOES NOT*** feature the awesome bulldozer of a track ‘EVIL SINNER’. Now that’s what I call a total letdown. I heard all the talk on CKCU FM about how Mr Jeff Waters supposed remastered and painstakingly put all the pieces back together that was once the ‘Kings of Thrash’, EXCITER. Well……..I don’t know about anyone out there, but frankly I can’t tell any difference in the sound between my ‘STEAMHAMMER’ copy, and this latest letdown. Actually they even time themselves exactly the same as each other on my CD player’s track-timer. This is one of the best ever albums in the history of Thrash, Heavy, Speed Metal, you name it! I rank it amongst my 10 best ever, even along side IRON MAIDEN’S ‘Killers’, without a doubt in the world……..but to re-release a Metal God like this, ……..no way man. I’ll stick to my distorted vinyl. What the hell happened Jeff?

Well folks, on the morning of December 4th, I woke up to an email from ‘Watersound Studios Inc’, that abruptly read:

“Jeff Waters from Annihilator band here. Just read a review you did on the Amazon.com site for the Violence and Force/Exciter re-release. I am getting some emails about this review; I DID NOT re-master this cd (re-release of Violence and Force). I re-mastered some other cds in the catalogue but they are not released yet. Can you please correct the mis-information as it is causing me and the Exciter guys/label some grief; you reviewed it as sounding as bad as the original: I DID NOT MASTER THIS AT ALL. If you check your cd, there is no mention of Jeff Waters re-mastering it at all. Much appreciated! Cheers: Jeff’

“Remastered some other cd’s?.” I thought OK, what is going on here? I immediately logged on Amazon to read my review for refreshment, and also noticed that Waters had left a statement in regards to the whole issue. I emailed Waters back explaining to him where my thoughts were at, also letting him know that I’d be looking into the matter within the next 24 hours. Needless to say, however much and hard I tried to prove myself wrong, I couldn’t come up with the slightest reason to, and or evidence to change my story. I thought, ok, if I have got it wrong than so have another 100 people with me, and I had the emails to prove it. So where was the discrepancy? There was no discrepancy. The facts and words speak for themselves. The following excerpt is a word for word portion from that interview that Mr Waters done with Dan Beehler on CKCU FM which can also be found online for download at: www.BraveWords.com

Mr Waters states, and it goes as follows:

“Yeah…well it’s the opposite now, it’s, Megaforce has got, gonna release, I think they’re releasing one title called ‘Violence and Force’, uhmm November 9th worldwide, and ahhh that’s gonna be a big deal for Europe, I’m sure, and a bit in the States and of course our own country, hopefully, and then they’re gonna release the rest of the catalogue in the early 2005 year, and ahh-I was lucky not only to get the stuff back but I was able to take the old twenty-year-plus masters on some of this stuff and remaster it and salvage it, I was literally sometimes taking vinyl records and renting turn tables and cartridges buying the cartridges and loading them into the computer trying to get rid of the clicks, crackles and pops, with, with modern technology and software and ahh, the whole process was an absolute nightmare, but ahh, the end result is, is, you’ve got like, tons of Exciter records sounding a lot better than they did in the err, early days with tons of stuff for the fans, like bonus videos and all this stuff, so it’s-it’s, Dan just went back to the ahh, the vault and found himself a ton of really cool photos featuring the guys in the band with a lot of names, that you know, that they toured with………………..so that’s the Exciter story to-date as far as ahh, the catalogue, that’s our big news…..” - Jeff Waters talking on 93.1 CKCU Radio Carleton

In the meantime I received another email from Mr Waters making assumptions that I didn’t own the CD, and if I did I would have noticed that he himself had no part in that.

I then in return also followed with another email I sent to Mr Waters: (omitted is the understandably upset fan’s email that was attached to my email below)

“Jeff, I had the CD when I wrote the review. That's not where the discrepancy is amongst this conflict. The discrepancy lays on the interview you done on CKCU. It's information you gave out to the public dude. You need to listen to it again. I sat and listened to it 3-4 times today man, and you clearly don't clear-cut state whether this is or isn't part of the re-mastering stuff. I even got a couple of mates in the music industry to listen to it and tell me their thoughts, and they both said the same thing, "It's misleading". You leave the impression that this is the first CD from this catalogue of specialty concerning EXCITER, featuring extras and re-mastering done from yourself. What are the exact releases that have been touched up by you out of this catalogue??? I mean you have to realise that fans are pissed off man, and I'll show you below just one of the many emails I got from dudes that dig EXCITER. I was asked to do a review on these cd's and I knocked it back because of the re-release of 'Violence & Force'. I thought it was a real waste of time and, what was the point of releasing something in the first place that was actually worse than the first release (vinyl), track omitted and all. I didn't want to do the review so I don't can-it because I love EXCITER, and I just couldn't lie about the whole thing, so I thought I'd rather stay out of it and hopefully someone makes the fans aware of it. No one wants to go out and buy something they've already got, it's a waste of money, I'd rather spend it buying, and I’m not patronising you, but for example the new ANNIHILATOR album. Honestly, what's the point? I write reviews because of the way things are man, not to cause grief, and in this case I think that the fans should be aware about this. Prior to me writing the review on AMAZON, they had the release listed with the track 'EVIL SINNER'. As soon as they got whiff of all the conflict, they revised it and omitted that track from their track listing. Have you seen the stuff already spreading around all over the Net man? Second hand CD's of that release all over the place. That shows that the fans are not happy, for the simple reason, they have already got it! I think you need to make a clear statement of what the fans should expect, and not what maybe a profitable project for anyone involved. It's wrong man, and in this case I think anyone will agree with me dude. I can't revise something that's not part of my belief. Honesty is the key word amongst an industry that's gone mad, and sadly to some I'm one of those dudes. If something sucks, than it sucks, and that's my opinion. It doesn't have to impose on anyone else's beliefs. It's a free country brother. Take Care! George.”

Jeff Waters then followed:

“If you read your review, it implies that I had something to do with you not liking the cd. "What the hell happened Jeff?/supposed re-mastering". You need to direct your emails to Megaforce Records, who released this cd, if there is something you do not like about it. if you actually had the cd, you might have stated something like "i thought waters was supposed to be re-mastering the catalogue but it seems like he is not involved in this one"! but you are right, it is a free country and you can say anything you like!!”

Well I’m very sorry Jeff, but “No, I don’t say what I like, but what is right!” so that clears that one, and by the way, I’m still not clear on what it is that has upset Mr Waters. I mean is it the ratings for royalties or what man? This isn’t a Megaforce Records issue. This is a Mr Waters issue; after all he is the one that publicly announced this project as a project he has taken personally onboard including all the remastering. I mean, if this was the case, “Violence and Force” shouldn’t had even been presented as part of the new Exciter remasters catalogue, but I suppose how else are the sales going to flourish? We are consumers and we have rights too. If anything, I think we have the right to know what we’re paying for. Everyone knows that this day-and-age, the majority of all sale transactions are done over the ‘Internet’. The least that we consumers can be presented with is a truthful description of what it is we are actually paying for, and in the end-of-the-day; are going to receive in the mail. So with this comes the conclusion of, The ‘Phantom Remastered’ Classic, turned The ‘Phantom Remastered’ Menace. I’ll let you all be the judge of that.

written by George Trapezanidis

Playing time: 37.39