Jeff is a better musician than Dave, but Dave has been able to put together better band members over the years so I have to say Megadeth.

I'd go with Annihilator...

Gotta go with Megadeth.

Jeff better then Dave? I love Jeff's playing and writing but Dave just about created thrash and his playing is incredible. I don't know if I could say Jeff is better.

Jeff and Dave are equally good

They're good in different ways.

Megadeth all the way. The first two Annihilator albums are classics but everything went downhill quick for them afterwards. Jeff can shred with the best of em tho. A Dave/Jeff collab would pwn hard.

Annihilator.

Jeff Waters is my idol.

For me it's no contest - Megadeth by far!

Annihilator beyond the first two albums has failed to capture my attention. IMO all the post-Neverland material is average at best. Even the good moments sound like a poor man's version of what Annihilator was in the beginning.

I think Jeff Waters has also become slightly overrated over the years. I won't argue that the first two Annihilator albums were great and easily match up to Megadeth's talent but from then on Jeff's riffs, solos and general songwriting sounds so watered down and without any real focus.

For me even albums like Criteria which see the return of Randy Rampage fail to capture the creative spirit and intensity of Alice in Hell or Never Neverland. The Comeau albums are devoid of any originality, the material on both Carnival and Waking the Fury sounds to me like a tribute to various bands Jeff Waters was listening to at the time.

I don't mean to be so down on Jeff and Annihilator because I really do get a kick out of listening to the first two albums but when you compare the catalogs of these two bands, Megadeth is by far more consistent and even when Mustaine is experimenting with new ideas they hardly ever sound half-arsed. Albums like Youthanasia and Cryptic Writings are a breath of fresh air when compared to most post-Neverland material where Jeff seems without a creative focus.

This is not to say that Mustaine has never recorded any bad albums - Risk and The World Needs A Hero were both very average releases and I'm being generous here. I must admit that TWNAH has grown on me over the years yet I still rate it towards the bottom of Megadeth's catalog. Of course nothing was worse than Risk - that's as clear as day. In that regard I cannot be too harsh about TWNAH since the band (or whatever was left of it) was still recovering from a bad album.

The problem I find with Annihilator is that it's always been Jeff on his own. I think if Jeff had a music partner, or some form of chemistry with other band members like Mustaine had with Ellefson then I think the post-Neverland albums would have sounded much more focused.

Annihilator's further disadvantage is that the band was a late bloomer. Although Jeff started out in the 80s, Annihilator didn't move past demo tapes until the early 90s. By the time Neverland came out, thrash was already on its way out. I think it only became harder for Jeff to maintain that sound and get enough people interested in playing with him. I think the story may have turned out different had Annihilator been more active in the 1980s. That's at least my perspective.

As far as the newer albums are concerned, again Megadeth has much stronger releases than the Padden-based Annihilator albums. Replacing Comeau wasn't going to be easy but Padden really does not fit Annihilator's sound. If anything Comeau gave Annihilator a glimmer of hope, yes those two albums weren't great but to be fair Annihilator sounded better on Carnival and Fury than any of the other post-Neverland albums. Perhaps had Comeau stayed on we would have had more solid releases.

Awesome comparison, both are very simmilar in many ways, and also very different. Megadeth easily, but Annihilator are a very underratted band. Never Neverland is almost like their Rust In Peace, its a masterpiece!!