“Annihilator” is an appropriately discomposing name for a thrash metal band, and these Canadian headbangers have more than lived up to it. Largely a vehicle for singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Waters, the group has forged a distinct style that tempers the genre's vile shredding and chaotic blitzing with cerebral meditations on alienation and technical wizardry. A genre milestone, 1989's Alice in Hell is a searing succession of knotted fret-work and shifts in tempo so sudden they can give listeners whiplash. It's an attack that has grown only more laser-focused with time.