When metalheads discuss the genre’s titans and their most influential works, Megadeth’s “Rust In Peace” often emerges as a technical brilliance and songwriting benchmark. Now, according to Annihilator guitarist Jeff Waters, his band’s 1989 debut, “Alice In Hell,” may have had an unexpected influence on the creation of Megadeth’s classic.
During a fan Q&A on the Rock Kommander YouTube channel, Waters shared insights about his career, upcoming projects, and a surprising connection between “Alice In Hell” and “Rust In Peace.” He recounted his relationship with Megadeth members Dave Mustaine and David Ellefson.
“Okay, so Dave Ellefson and Dave Mustaine, the Megadeth guys, not all of ’em but some of ‘em, have been my friends for a while. I talked to Dave Mustaine ever since 1989. He asked me to join the band in ‘89. I didn’t. They went on to do the amazing Rust In Peace with Marty Friedman, and we continued touring with Testament and doing our first record. But, yeah, you’re saying you heard some Alice In Hell in the Rust In Peace album the year later. So there is absolute truth to that, believe it or not.”
Waters elaborated on a lesser-known fact shared by Ellefson years ago: “A lot of Megadeth fans don’t realize it, is that David Ellefson had told, I guess Blabbermouth, the online metal news place, years ago, maybe 10 years, 15 years ago, I’m not sure when, that while Megadeth was driving to the rehearsals and the writing and recording for the Rust In Peace album, they would listen to Annihilator‘s Alice In Hell and sing it and drive to the studio every day listening to that record.”
Reflecting on the connection, Waters found common ground with Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman’s style: “So I had always heard the Rust In Peace album and thought it was awesome and Marty Friedman was doing these amazing guitar solos, but I always thought there are some parts of Marty Friedman where you hear a blues style, ’cause he’s not a blues guitarist; he has blues and many other styles. But he had a little blues stuff in his solos. And I always thought that maybe he and I had the same influences. And David Ellefson and Nick Menza said that, ‘No, no, no. We listened to your stuff for a whole year on the way to those sessions.’ So I was, like, ‘Hang on, I was like a 20-year-old kid, and I had a little influence on your best album.’”
“So, that I can say now is true,” Waters added. “You can ask Dave Ellefson or any of those guys. So I will take some credit in the sense that I’m honored that they would be listening and singing my music on the way to record their music and write their music. F**kin’ awesome. Yeah, that’ll go down as my top-ten thing in my life that was really cool.”
Ellefson’s admiration for Annihilator‘s early work isn’t new. Back in 2008, he described himself as a “huge Annihilator fan over the years” and revealed that “Nick and I used to drive to Rust In Peace rehearsals in the early ’90s thrashing out to the Alice In Hell and Never, Neverland albums.”