Relaxing in London’s Gibson Rooms, surrounded by dozens of very expensive-looking guitars, Jeff Waters is a happy man. The founder, guitarist and occasional frontman of Canadian thrash outfit Annihilator is in Europe at the label’s beckoning filming videos for his band’s new album, Suicide Society (UDR).

“I’m smiling because we don’t usually get two videos,” explains Waters. “Normally I have to call the label and say I’d really like to do a video, and usually argue politely about a video budget and whether we can get one, and sometimes we get a video.” For the Annihilator’s 15^th album, however, there was no need for negotiations; UDR & Warner wanted  two videos and wanted them quick. “We didn’t have concepts, we didn’t have a video team, director. We didn’t have anything arranged.” While Waters was still worried that these two videos might still be done on the cheap with a skeleton crew, what he found on arrival came as a pleasant surprise: 14 crew, three cameramen with top of the line stuff, and decent hotel rooms (no sharing) to top it off. “We got to the shoot in Hanover, went to the very east of Germany to an old run down building that was around in the war which we probably shouldn’t have been in, and filmed.”

“We were just smiling the whole time, realising that the labels are putting in some money into this thing, and I’ve not seen that since 1995. So that’s what, 20 years ago? 20 years since a label has looked like they’re putting in more than the contracts say, more than I request, more than I would expect.”

Having heard Suicide Society, it’s safe to say the label’s faith in Annihilator is well-placed. Continuing the upward trajectory in quality of 2010’s self-titled effort and 2013’s Feast, it balances the aggressive bite with Water’s soft spot for accessible melody. “It’s a good sign that looks like the labels are supporting us. I am getting a little bit excited about this, more than I normally would.”

While he might be smiling now, the album’s gestation contained more than its fair share of stress. Shortly before he was due to record his part, Dave Padden, Annihilator’s vocalist/guitarist for over a decade, decided to call time on his career with the band. “I don’t know the specific reason, but I know the general reason was he hadn’t been happy in the band for almost four years,” says Waters.

“I thought, “Uh-oh, do you need more money?” Nope, that wasn’t it. Was it something I’ve been doing or some way I’ve been treating or not treating you? No.” At loss as to why, Waters asked for an explanation. “He said, “I don’t like or look forward to going on tour or going to record. I just don’t like the travel anymore.” While it came a shock, it wasn’t entirely unexpected. “Now that I look back, I think I knew. I never said anything because I didn’t want to open something up and have him leave.”

Since he joined in 2003, Padden had been a steady ship in a band with an-ever rotating line-up of members and for a while, things seemed bleak. “I was screwed. I had a whole week of depression.”  The original plan would have seen him arrive at Waters’ studio in early December and have everything wrapped up time for Christmas. “I had recorded the entire record, wrote the lyrics, and demoed it on CD. I was scheduled to move house and I also had a deadline for the record. It was supposed to be out months earlier than now. Dave quitting completely destroyed that whole thing.”

But refusing to be deterred, Waters set about looking for a new vocalist. “I looked for a while, couldn’t find anyone. It was either old school guys that were old and out of shape or guys that didn’t have everything Annihilator needed.” Explaining that returning to previous vocalists such as Randy Rampage or Aaron Randall was a non-starter, he looked to some of the younger vocalists, but still couldn’t find what he was looking for.

Eventually Waters – who performed vocal duties for three Annihilator albums in the 90s (1994’s King of the Kill, 1995’s Refresh the Demon, and 1997’s Remains) – had an epiphany. “I said to myself, “I’ve already got this thing done. I could walk in tomorrow and sing it” and then I realised, you idiot, that’d be a great way to get this problem quickly solved.” But not wanting to do a half-arsed job of it, Waters did some prep work. “I pushed the entire thing back – not just the album, my whole life went on hold and I went to a vocal teacher, got vocal lessons, learned how to warm up my voices so I hopefully wouldn’t destroy it on tour.”

“I spent a couple of weeks writing down on those three albums what sucked, what I did and didn’t like. I kind of taught myself to get rid of the things I didn’t like and work on what I might actually be good at.” After ditching the “crappy Waters characteristics”, the focus shifted to a What Would Jesus Do-type scenario, except instead of looking to the son of God for inspiration, he looked to his four favourite singers instead: Layne Staley, Dave Mustaine, James Hetfield and Ozzy Osbourne. “That was the only way I could stay afloat, otherwise you would have got an album like King of the Kill and you would have got some pretty clichéd, barely-cutting-it stuff out of me.”

Despite the trouble, Waters insists there’s no bad blood. “I talk to him every weekend; Facebook or text messages or whatever it is – and in a way he’s like “Dammit I wish I was there with you doing that,” but he knows that he would come back and do it and then in a week he’d be back to where he was.”

DAN SWINHOE