Liner Notes by Jeff Waters:
Jeff Waters describes the songs on this album:
THE FUN PALACE Carrying on Annihilator's fine tradition of covering weird. psychoiciecal illnesses, "Palace" is narrated by the emotion of guilt. It details the psychic voyage taken by one who has committed a heinous crime and gotten away with it Many years later the nightmares become so intense that the only way for the murderer to stop them is to confess.
ROAD TO RUIN I guess you could call this Annihilator's version of "Detroit Rock City" meets "Highway Star" meets drinking and driving! Thousands of people are killed each year by those who think that, after a few drinks, they're sober enough to drive the few short miles to home. This particular individual was one of those.
SIXES AND SEVENS This title comes from the British phrase "At Sixes and Sevens." meaning "at a point of disorder or confusion." I think a lot of people will be able to relate to these lyrics, which describe a period in my life where everything was in confusion, without direction, and giving up was the easy way out The moral of the story. Everything works out in the end if you really want it to!
STONEWALL When I moved out to Vancouver (Canada!) in 1987, I took a walk down to a nearby river. It looked calm and peaceful, yet, alive. A closer look (and smell) changed my peaceful mood into a feeling of disgust and disappointment: The water was full of raw sewage and chemicals, which I later found were spewing out from a plant upstream, as well as a garbage dump located, ever so brilliantly, fifty feet from the shoreline. This was the first time I've ever really thought about the permanent environmental damage being done and, although I'm not about to hold up protest slogans and join Greenpeace, "Stonewall" is my way of bringing the subject up for thought.
NEVER, NEVERLAND No, not "Alison Hell" Part 2! Yes, another gloomy subject! Yet, another true story! This is about an unfortunate young girl who was locked in a room for half a decade just for looking at a boy in a grocery store! Her guardian, also her grandmother, felt that the only way she could protect her granddaughter from the "evils and temptations" in the world was to confine her to her room "til eternity." There is, however, a rather happy end to all this when, during the middle of the song, the police/social workers storm the house and free the girl from her mental/physical captivity. She is now on the bright road to recovery whilst Nanny finds her new home in the sanitarium. P.S. Clare is a doll!
IMPERILED EYES Although a cliche subject in metal, fear of annihilation is something we've all experienced at one time or another. In this case, we try to decipher, lyrically and musically, a set of reoccurring nightmares I used to frequently have.
KRAF DINNER A popular North American delicacy, this macaroni and cheese dinner is probably the heavy metal musician's best friend! By "living" off this stuff, I saved enough money to pay the rent on a rehearsal space and buy cigarettes each day! Boy, what a happy teenager I was!! "Kraf Dinner is full of love and butter!!!"
PHANTASMAGORIA Phantasmagoria is a form of psychological disorder where the victim has visions of ghosts in his/her mind. These apparitions multiply, eventually driving the victim nuts! Weird, eh? All our friends who remember the Phantasmagoria 1986 demo should find this quite happening and very heavy. Cheers!
REDUCED TO ASH Briefly; an imaginary view of our planet after a thermo-nuclear splattering. We hope not.
I AM IN COMMAND This is not an anti-religious, anti-Christian nor anti-anything song. It is about those (hopefully) few televangelists who prey and profit on the weak, poor and directionless. "Command" is narrated by one who is under their "spell" and one who has just freed himself from one of these cult-like farces. I guess those having problems should be cautious about who they turn to these days. THRASH!
