Welcome to my official entrance into the world of Metal. Before Criteria for a Black Widow, I had been experimenting through the years, trying to find a form of music I liked. I had my Country phase thanks to my mother, the rap phase thanks to popular mainstream, I had my pop phase thanks to MTV and the cathiness of singles by Everclear, Goo Goo Dolls and New Radicals, I had my punk phase thanks to friends that quickly become short lived for various reasons, and then I found light with more mainstream "nu-metal" acts like Slipknot and Mudvayne. While my growing intrigue with these acts, and other such harder bands like Korn and, yes, even Limp Bizkit had begun to show me the light. There were many instances that really drew me into the Metal world, such as seeing Slayer live for the first time, and picking up my first King Diamond album, but it wasn't until Annihilator's Criteria for a Black Widow was suggested to me to help me struggle with the bullying and depressing times of my youth. This is the album that forever changed me.
When you're a kid, you think every little thing is a huge deal. And when you're in your early teens, you think life is not worth living when you think you fall in love with someone and they break your heart. It's a rough feeling that's hard to cope with, especially at that age and feeling it for the first time. This album was exactly what I needed to help me get over it and realize at an early age that my problems are not necessarily the worst in the world, and that more pain like this was to come. Criteria for a Black Widow was a dark album that felt sinister, aggressive, and an ultimate "fuck you" to everyone. Lyrically, I connected with many of the songs penned by Jeff Waters. I did not own many CDs back then, so I was jumping between this, King Diamond, Nevermore, and Slayer. While all of them were impressive, this one just jumped out at me.
The music to Criteria for a Black Widow was just so fast and aggressive, it locked on with a primal urge inside of my. It got my blood pumping, and it had me forgetting about all my problems. I was able to lay back and let the tension build through the album and by the time it was done, all my stress and worries were gone, and I was happy, ready to face another day. It eventually became a ritual to listen to some of it before and after school, or just in general before going out to hang out with friends. It let me to discover more of Annihilator's discography, which over the years have proven to be albums I've always returned to for solid metal, and was my gateway into becoming the strong Thrash fan I am today, moreso then any Slayer album impacted me.
To this day, the album has had such a strong impact on me that I traditionally carry it around with me wherever I go. I know the lyrics from start to finish, and I've plowed through about eight copies of this album. I typically even give a copy of this album as a gift to anyone I know into Metal, or that I am dating as a way of saying "I want you to share in the one album that had such an impact in my life". It usually doesn't go over well, but since I'm engaged at this point I don't have to worry about that as much. But, to this day, I have a physical copy at home, it's on my laptop, it's in my car, and it's at work. Whenever I get overly stressed, depressed, or just bored, I pop it in, and immediately I'm comforted and join in on the vocals with my head banging right along. While the album doesn't necessarily receive the proper praise, I think it's a flawless release from the band, from a personal and emotional level, and consider it one of Annihilator's strongest efforts to date from a critical point of view.
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