Destruction - The Butcher Strikes Back (2022)

Vic Records' The Butcher Strikes Back is one of those 'deep fan' sorts of releases, slapping together some random material onto a single recording that might have evaded some of the band's audience. This is a part of the label's M.O., to get demos and other obscurities out into the hands of the metal crowd, but I often find that the quality or presentation is lacking, and would prefer to check out their more original releases or pure album reissues. This disc features 12 cuts, including the demo recordings of the same title that came out as the band were getting back together after the debacle that some refer to as Neo-Destruction; a handful of Japan only bonus tracks, and then the entire latter half is devoted to some live tracks from a Wacken performance. Right off the bat, I can say that this already feels like a disjointed product without hearing a single note...

Individually, though, there's nothing terribly wrong here. The demo tracks sound pretty sharp, and the production shows you they were ready to return with a vengeance for All Hell Breaks Loose and then their reunion masterpiece The Antichrist. Still a bit disheveled and demo sounding, but they aren't too far below the official studio recordings. The Tank and Motorhead covers are both serviceable, the production on the former a little more might and iron-flecked than the latter, but both of the tunes work well with Schmier's snarling and adding a little more German steel to them, and these are obvious influences on their own sound from the early years. There's a Japanese version of the Schmier-only fronted "Alliance of Hellhounds" which feels superfluous, and then it's on to the live material, which has a mix of reunion and older tracks but doesn't sound all that good from a band with better live offerings that you can experience in full, like their legendary Live Without Sense, or even the more recent stuff like Born to Thrash or Live Attack!

That's not to say it sounds bad, all the instruments are present but they feel a little cluttered at how they are entering your ear space. The bass sounds livid, the drums tinny, the guitars muscular enough and just enough of Schmier to fully embrace their infernal energy, but it's certainly no big draw towards this product as a whole. And that's rather the issue here, who is this for other than those who have to own absolutely everything? The cover art is just derivative of Infernal Overkill and Mad Butcher, and it just feels like a garden variety, second or third rate fan package which isn't necessarily terrible, nor is it expensive; but you'd be better served picking up a new CD, cassette or vinyl from some band you just discovered, or one of the Destruction albums not already in your collection. If you MUST have it all, though, I have heard far worse than this.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Live Attack (2021)

It seems like only a year and change ago I was reviewing another Destruction live album, and so I was: Born to Thrash. Perhaps it is a sign of these COVID times that bands and labels are helping fill the void by pushing out contractual fillers, live albums or compilations, and there isn't really a need for it beyond what limited profitability or collectible format they might manifest, or maybe the Germans just had a whole bunch of ideas for live albums they wanted to produce. Either way, the Live Attack hails from a live-streamed Swiss gig, it's available on audio or video formats, and frankly quite a lot of material is presented here, nearly two hours and 22 tracks worth that span a good deal of the band's catalogue, with a good emphasis placed on the classics but also no shying away from some of their more modern pieces.

The lineup on this was Schmier, Mike, Damir and Randy Black on the drums, and the production is packed with energy, although I found some of the mix levels a little sloppy. The drums are set at this perfect level, and the vocals are very loud and obvious, and they sound positively nasty. I do feel that the guitars suffer a bit, hanging just below where I'd like them, but you can still follow the contours and if you already know all the tunes it'll obviously help. The leads are a bit brighter and louder and cut right through where they need to. Where the drums fade out a little you can make out the rhythms better, but I just think they could have been cranked to give this thing even more power. I have absolutely no problem with the track selection, as its got a lot of the 80s stuff I adore, as well as giving me the two huge hits from my favorite Destruction album, The Antichrist. On size alone, this is also huge, so you'll get plenty of spin out of just trying to make it through the two discs just one time.

Of the half-dozen or so live albums Destruction has put out, though, where does this one rank? I was personally psyched to see a lot of the live streaming/performances these last couple years, there were some that really stood out for me, but I don't know that I needed them transformed into product, and while the Germans have done an elaborate job here, this one doesn't even stand out so much to me. Even the recent Born to Thrash sounded a little better for these ears, but to me the standard will always be Live Without Sense from back in 1989, one of my favorite thrash lives ever. It just sounded more virile and acidic back then, not that the band has lost its touch, but I think if I want to invest in a new live product from them, any average set just isn't going to cut it, I'd want an immaculate mix, a load of crowd energy and a performance for the ages. While elaborate, Live Attack just isn't that, at least not in the pure audio format I'm covering.

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Diabolical (2022)

Destruction has settled so comfortably into its post-reunion niche by this point that it's their game to lose, and while they've had a steady flood of albums and enormous productivity over the last 20+ years, it did seem to peak quite early with 2001's The Antichrist, and since then there have been only minor deviations within the more ironclad style they've been adopting. The production has been pounding, the band's energy and aggression still unquestionable, but at the same time they've not ever felt quite so clinical or creative as they did on some of their earlier offerings during the initial run. Diabolical doesn't exactly fix this, but while it's still consistent with the half-dozen albums that precede it, I felt like there was a little more flexibility and variation to be had on this one, and it's easily one of their more enjoyable since being hammered by the immortal choruses of "Thrash 'Til Death" or "Nailed to the Cross".

Perhaps some small part of this is attributed to being the first album without Mike playing guitars, but to be honest the riffing here sticks quite closely to his style, and you can only notice marginal differences in how the duo of Damir and Furia handles the attack. A lot of the progressions will seem familiar if you've been listening over the last two decades, but there are enough differences to keep the formula refreshed. The songs are generally fast and busy, and the band never really goes for cheap or obvious chorus parts. Riffs aren't the stickiest to the ear, but they pound so relentlessly that I never found myself remotely bored listening through. The solos here are great in tracks like "Repent Your Sins", wild melodic forays that immediately add another level of depth to the usual neck-jerking, and often they are the true climactic moments throughout the album, which is frankly rare these days. To the surprise of no one, Schmier still sounds absolutely fucking awesome, that nasty blend of rasp and melody proves the perfect frontman and he frankly murders the rest of the German thrash veterans in delivery. Did he really record all these vocals back in the early 2000s and is just slowly rationing them out on each album, because it's hard to believe!

They do actually bring back a few, slightly technical riffing and popping patterns which remind me of their early years (the pre-chorus to "Whorefication" for example), and certainly the shredding is top flight compared to any of their prior efforts. Randy Black's drumming continues its machine-like intensity and he's constantly fluttering out great fills that clap and snap along with the frenzy. There are a lot of good tunes here, but favorites might include "The Last of a Dying Breed" with the atmospheric, maniacal framing of its intro, or "The Lonely Wolf" with its churning rhythmic battery that sounds almost like a German Testament. A couple guitars here or there sound somewhat derivative (pin the tail on the Slayer riff), but as originators themselves, I can forgive this, and the fact that a band so deep into its career has such infernal energy as I'm hearing on this record is rather impressive. The cover of GBH's "City Baby Attacked by Rats" is a great touch, and they definitely put a thrashier Destruction spin to it, while the cover art here makes for a perfect tribute to all your nuclear mutant metal-punk Troma film dreams, as the Butcher leers on in the background. Much like Sodom with their latest, Schmier and company just know how to kill it and I hope they never stop!

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Born to Thrash (2020)

Destruction's live offerings have been a series of diminishing returns for me. The first, Live Without Sense, was excellent, one of my favorite live albums of the 80s, and one that I probably listened through just as much as any of their studio outings, at least for a few years after it came out. Later recordings like Alive Devastation and The Curse of the Antichrist - Live in Agony were nothing to necessarily scoff at, but comparatively didn't excite me enough to keep on revisiting them when I was instead in the grips of so much other new metal, or couldn't really be pulled away from their 2001 opus The Antichrist which to me is still marvelous. Born to Thrash is a pretty humble 10-tracker from a band that could just as easily produce a 2-3 disc set, but the idea I think is to get back to basics and so we've got material that was recorded at a single gig, the Party San 2019 fest from their home country, where I'd like to fantasize thrash metal is like the morning newspaper, only several Germans I've spoken to say that instead it's all bad techno and Volksmusik...you probably know more about that than I do, but please refrain from screaming with your keyboard until this review is done.

The track list is pretty well distributed between oldies that everyone in the audience will love ("Total Desaster", "Curse the Gods", "Mad Butcher", etc), a couple of their early 21st Century hard hitters, namely "Nailed to the Cross" and "Thrash Till Death" from my fave mentioned above, and then they give you some more current material in "Born to Perish" and "Betrayal" from their most recent studio album, Born to Perish, which was pretty good. It's a crowd pleaser set with just a few reminders that 'Hey we still exist and hit the studio fairly often!'; and when you're in front of a huge festival crowd you're going to go for maximum impact, which I think these choices pull off for the most part. Now, maybe coming at this record as a fan of 35 years who owns all the band's studio CDs other than the embarrassing Neo-Destruction years, I could make an argument that if I'm expected to plunk down $10-15 for this that I'd appreciate a more elaborate package, maybe getting the chance to hear a few discs worth of their lesser known tracks in the live setting would heat me up a little more, but that's not going to spin the wheels of commerce for most potential buyers or ping the label's green light.

This is the two-axe-attack Destruction with Mike and Damir delivering an appreciable crunch, and their dextrous playing and the spurious leads all sound pretty good, but perhaps not as beefy as I'd like, just a grade too low when sent up against the driving beats of skin veteran Randy Black. The bass thumps along well enough but I feel like it could also have come out in the mix just a little more for the perfect balance. Schmier's vocals still sound as uncouth and savage as he's always been known for, perhaps even a little wilder here than on some other performances I've heard, and that might or might not be the result of his aging pipes, but it still sounds like a thrash metal band ought ta be, and he has great stage presence even in audio-only form as he's introducing cuts like "Mad Butcher". The reverb and effects on his vocals are great, especially when he has to pitch out one of his screams, and they help it seem more psychotic and memorable. All in all, a very workmanlike, effortless set from guys that have been this so long that they should probably be able to juts plug amps into their veins and the songs would still play with no other instruments. It's a good live album, not trumping Live Without Sense, and not likely to draw me away from their studio work, but dependable.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://www.destruction.de/

Destruction/Kreator/Sodom/Tankard - The Big Teutonic 4 - Part II EP (2015)

The original Big Teutonic 4 split was a fairly fun idea, so why not tap that well another time? That was Nuclear Blast's thinking as they rounded up the usual suspects for another go at some rousing NWOBHM covers. This time, each of the four thrash bands is taking on a different English forerunner, with only one of those bands (Maiden) being redundant with the original split. Raven, Saxon and Tank are all getting a turn to have some of their material in the spotlight. And once again, much of the material here has also been published elsewhere, so the value you're going to get out of it is pretty limited if you're not a long-term follower/collector of the German bands. As cool as it was to hear the slightly lesser known bands like Raven and Tank done justice, I was sadly less into this split than its predecessor.

Kind of like Sodom's cover on the earlier split, Kreator's version of Raven's "Lambs to the Slaughter" is one I've already been familiar with forever, since it came out on the Out of the Dark...Into the Light EP back in the 80s, and many represses of that with the Terrible Certainty album since. Sodom's contribution of Tank's "Don't Walk Away" is also an oldie that has been around since the days of the Agent Orange. Both are solid versions but they don't really change up the formula all that much, maybe in Mille's case but even he is trying to emulate some of the Raven screams with mixed success. I feel that Destruction's rendition of "Princess of the Night" is more of the transformation you want to hear when a thrash act is covering some trad metal, but it also comes off a little goofy with all the vocals and backing vocals going over it, cluttered where the original is just so elegant, perfectly written and executed. Bringing up the rear yet again, Tankard is the one band doing something exclusive here, with yet another Maiden cover, this one a somewhat exciting romp on their eponymous "Iron Maiden".

Part II sort of falters with the first two tracks being pretty obvious covers that aren't news to anyone, and Destruction's is once again a bonus track from various versions of Spiritual Genocide. Since these three were all pretty saturated in exposure and easy to acquire, I think this is less of a value than the first time around, which was already a debatable value. So once again, hardcore Tankard fans will benefit the most from having it. What's the most disappointing though is that the label and bands could have taken this idea and done something really special with it, like new original material...an 8 or 12 track 4-way Teutonic split with 2-3 new original cuts from each band would sell like hotcakes. But this just seems like a lazier followup to something that already generated a little cash flow and it shows in both the selection and the product.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]

https://www.destruction.de/
https://kreator-terrorzone.de/
http://sodomized.info/
https://www.tankard.info/

Destruction/Kreator/Sodom/Tankard - The Big Teutonic 4 EP (2012)

Now here's an example of a split release between numerous thrash metal luminaries which, at least on the surface level, seems rather an interesting one. I agree completely with the designation of these four bands as 'The Big Teutonic 4', happy that Tankard was at last being counted among them (I'd been doing so since the 90s when it was clear they were persisting where others faltered). This was yet another CD being issued exclusively through the Legacy magazine out of Germany, but Nuclear Blast also released a version of it some months later, so...not so much. What's even more curious, is that this doesn't feature original songs, but rather covers of two titanic English bands in Iron Maiden and Motörhead, with two German bands taking on each of them. Unfortunately, most of these are NOT exclusive to this split, but taken from various other singles, past albums, or previously issued bonus tracks, by the respective artists.

The most obvious of these is going to be Sodom's handling of "Iron Fist", which we'd already heard as far back as Persecution Mania and even live on Mortal Way of Live. It's a classic, in the hands of either its originator or Tom Angelripper, and a natural cover from a band that draws so much of its own style DIRECTLY from those NWOBHM road-dogs, however at the same it was the inclusion I was least interested in, having heard it many times before. However, Destruction's cover of "The Hammer", which was only included with the Japanese version of Spiritual Genocide (that I had not heard), is quite nasty, Schmier plastering his version of the vocals all over the punk-fueled speed metal massacre. It's also a little messy in the right ways, not as tight as the original content those Germans were putting out, but that's fine in the context of this particular cover. Another of my favorites here is Kreator's "Number of the Beast", not the first time they've taken on Iron Maiden, but even though the music plays pretty close to the original, it sounds great with Mille's harsher vocals, and I loved the lead sequence. This one is also located on the later Violence Unleashed EP or the Phantom Antichrist single if you're trying to track it down elsewhere.

The thrashier version of "The Prisoner" that Tankard includes is also a good one, filthier guitar tone and filthier vocals via Gerre, but they still touch on some points of atmosphere that you wouldn't expect from the German drunkaholics. And as far as I know, this is the one cover that is only available on this particular split, at least for now, so if you're a Tankard collector, you've got the most motivation to snap this up. Now, if ALL of these songs were exclusives, then I'd say this was a CD or vinyl that almost anyone would want...the songs are all good, even if Sodom's contribution is a bit too redundant. And to be fair, many fans might not own most of the tunes elsewhere. It's a fun concept to round up these thrashers, legends themselves, and then watch as they don't toot their own horns, but cover even mightier legends of British heavy metal. If you can track one down, it's pretty sweet to have on your wall, even if the content isn't all that valuable. Not a necessary purchase, but neat if you've never run across these covers before. And to think, Nuke Blast and these same four bands would be doing it again in just a couple years...

Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]

https://www.destruction.de/
https://kreator-terrorzone.de/
http://sodomized.info/
https://www.tankard.info/

Destruction/Tankard EP (2014)

The Pitch: Dude, two of your favorite German thrash bands have decided to release a split 7" together. It's totally limited, under a thousand copies, available in three vinyl colors and with some pretty cool cover art for each side that...looks a little much like cover art that both bands have released before, but try not to let that get in the way!

The Response: How many tracks? Are they exclusive? Is this one of those deals where each band is covering the other? Are they collaborations?

The Pitch: Well the Tankard track is also being released today on a full-length album called R.I.B., you know like Reign in Blood only its Reign in Beer! Surprised they never did that before. But the Destruction song, "Wildstyle/Immortality" is unique to this 7" as far as I know!

The Response: Well, that's somewhat less exciting, but let's check out this Destruction track. Hey, it's not so bad...sounds like a bunch of riffs that could have been patched together from anything they've put out from 2000-2014, but it's got that vicious energy they excel at, gnarly Schmier vocals, and a decent breakdown with lead guitar accompanying it. Nothing to scoff at.

The Pitch: I am so happy to hear you say that. So you want a copy? How about one of each color? Oh wait, you're not a Bronze Status Customer. I can only offer you the Red and White...

The Response: Nah, I'll just buy the Tankard album instead, and hope Destruction drops this on another album as a bonus track somewhere down the road. Thanks for nearly nothin'.

Verdict: Skimpy Fail [2/10]

https://www.destruction.de/
https://www.tankard.info/

Destruction/Rage - The Devil Strikes Again/Second to None EP (2016)

Here is the sort of wasteful musical product that I'm honestly surprised can still exist in modern times, a split 7" commercial double-single that gives the fanbase nothing it's not going to acquire elsewhere in a more substantial form. What you've got here is basically the title/lead-in track to Rage's The Devil Strikes Again album, and one cut off Destruction's Under Attack, both of which were being promoted around the spring and summer of 2016. Print them up on limited edition 7" vinyl, 1000 copies, a couple different colors to bilk collectors with serious acquisition disorder, and turn just the tiniest bit of profit...not nearly enough to justify a product's reason for being.

Now I love both of these bands...they've each been in my life for over thirty years. Had some effort been put into this to create some exclusive tracks, maybe have the bands covering each other, or creating more of a joint effort, you could have had a nice little fan package. I thought that the art for the Destruction side was really cool, possibly the only positive thing I have to say about this. As for the two songs, they match up well enough, as it's one of Rage's angrier modern style tracks which has just enough power behind it to hang in there with the more complex thrash of their countrymen. But each is far better experienced in the context of the other material written to be released along with it. There's simply no justification for this product independent of that. It's just as worthless as any old single which is cut & pasted from its respective album release, with no unique bonus content, not even any live or rehearsal cuts, cover songs, nothing.

Why bother in 2016 when the anxious audiences of the bands can just sample the tunes on their phones, their PCs, or whatever other devices and then go and grab a digital or physical version of the album? This shit is just useless. Any and ALL points I give to this are simply for the artwork of Gyula Havancsák, the Hungarian musician/artists who did the Destruction side. The rest is just needless Nuclear Blast excess from a label that has kept up with the times and thus I would assume should know better.

Verdict: Epic Frailty [0.5/10]

https://www.destruction.de/
http://www.rage-official.com/

Destruction - Born to Perish (2019)

It's amazing to think that we're already nearing two decades of the Destruction 'reunion' period, that is to say the new material being produced after The Least Successful Human Cannonball debacle, with the two main members of the band getting back on the same page and deciding to kick the world's ass ad infinitum, while other aged thrashers seem almost lazy in comparison to such an endless parade of productivity. That isn't to say that, musically speaking, they've been the envy of the genre since the new millennium. They peaked this new, furious thrashing attack and its production style back in 2001 on The Antichrist, and since that point have been sort of replicating that record with only minor variations in personnel, studio mixing and songwriting quality, even going so far as to put out two collections of re-recorded early material that sounds similar with the new era's material.

To be fair, all of these newer records have passed muster to the degree that they provide the anger, energy and Schmier's irresistible snarls their audience might seek. They never really shot any blanks, the sonic spunk concentration just receded for about 15 years. None of them were duds for me, but neither were they as exceptional as listening through The Antichrist again, or their earlier run of records throughout the 80s, which still feel more fresh and alluring than much of this ironclad, post industrial apocalyptic thrashing phase. Spiritual Genocide was my favorite of the later lot, and I was in the minority there, but it felt like it had the most outside influence going into it, perhaps a few shades of Schmier's beloved side project Headhunter. But I'm happy to say that Born to Perish is consistently firing off some of their strongest material in the last 18 years. Sure, it's not reinventing anything they haven't already been releasing over these last couple decades, but I feel it just has the best balance of memorable riffs, dynamics and musicianship of the lot. Whereas a bunch of the last 5-6 albums could all be thrown in a blender, with their track lists mixed up and you wouldn't always know the difference, here I find a lot more replay value.

Now a four-piece, the performances here are all exceptional. Mike's rhythm guitars still sound like beefy razors cutting down the opposition on a rusted landscape, with Swiss string-slinger Damir Eskic peppering on a bunch of spry and searing leads that add some character to the proceedings, a glaze of electric atmosphere, rather than just feeling obligatory. Even when they some cleaner bits like the intro to "Butchered for Life", they flow rather well and don't get upstaged once the distortion is cranked on. The bass lines are fat and potent, occasionally disappearing into Mike's power picking vortex but given some parts where they can stand alone. Skin-bashing legend Randy Black of Annihilator and Primal Fear makes his debut behind the Germans' kit, and he makes it sound effortless as he just rifles away, though I couldn't say I felt much of a difference from Vaaver's beats, but then again that's probably a good thing. There is no interruption of service on this album, if you've been enjoying the riff styles and general level of competence and professionalism that the band has maintained since All Hell Breaks Loose, then it's all par for the course.

All of the songs are decent if not outright fun, and while many of the rhythm guitar riffs can feel like they're paraphrased or disassembled and reassembled from older material, Damir's airier guitars actually go a long way in helping them feel slightly renewed. "Betrayal", "Rotten", "We Breed Evil" and "Fatal Flight 17" are probably some of those I was most magnetized towards, but they're not a whole lot more potent than their neighbors, so this is an album I have no problem sitting straight through for 50 minutes when I'm in the mood. The cover of Tygers of Pan Tang's "Hellbound" is appreciated, keeping its original heavy metal spirit, but given a little more thrust as its transformed just enough into the Destruction canon to earn its existence away from the original. Then again, Schmier is no newcomer to the style, having taken part in Panzer and Headhunter to great success. Overall, this was a very fun surprise to fuel me through the mid-to-late summer weeks, I wouldn't say it was some exceptional thrash album, but it's easily proof that the Germans' music still has some value to it nearly four decades into their career, much like their formidable peers Kreator and Sodom.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Thrash Anthems II (2017)

The original Thrash Anthems collection was hardly a popular item among purists for the band and style, nor am I myself normally a proponent for such re-recording packages. But I was so enamored with The Antichrist era of Destruction's reunion that I was actually pretty interested in hearing so many of the Germans' classics given a more modern, muscular, iron-clad treatment, about what you'd hear them sound like live in the 'oughts, and thus was not at all disappointed in the results. Granted, the newer versions of "Mad Butcher", "Curse the Gods", "Reject Emotions" and other staples in my listening diet don't serve to replace or upstage the earlier ones,  but they're a fun alternative that I might still mix in with a playlist culled from 21st century Destruction for tonal consistency.

One decade later, we've got another collection in the series, which specifically features re-workings of other older tunes that didn't make the cut the first time. Thrash Anthems 2007 got all of the more obvious choices out of the way, but its follow-up reaches way back to cover material like "Black Mass" and "Satan's Vengeance" off the Sentence of Death album, "The Ritual" from Infernal Overkill, "Confound Games", "Confused Mind" and "United by Hatred" from Eternal Devastation. Twelve tracks in total, so a little less than its predecessor, but I have to admit that this still sounds really fucking great, the punchier, more robust mix of guitars and drums melding together in a thrashing union which doesn't obfuscate the impact of the original riffs or the nuances found on the older recordings. Perhaps they're a fraction more sterile sounding, if you're someone like me who actually loves the little flaws and different production style of the 80s, but that doesn't mean they're not still a blast to listen through, and like the first collection this is not something I'll always shelf indefinitely. When I'm going for full 80s immersion I'll take the full, original albums, but if I just want to score an evening of drunken headbanging with friends not so versed in thrash beyond Metallica and Slayer, I think Thrash Anthems is a damn good option...

Schmier sounds as virile and nasty today as he did back then, still capable of complementing his harsh barking with the higher pitched screams you'll remember from his youth. Mike is a tireless, incendiary riffing machine who maintains the explosive level of excitement that put the band on the map in the first place, to some extent playing it safe, but why fix what isn't broken? Vaaver is by now the de facto backbone of the trio, with three studio albums already under his belt he's just as hard hitting and skilled as any to come before him. The production is cleaner, sure, but you simply cannot cage the violence that this band's songwriting manifests. As for song selection, obviously this is not entirely the band's A-Game. "Rippin' You Off Blind" and "Front Beast" were never favorites of mine, and I don't know that these new versions really up their ante, but I definitely spun through "Black Mass" and "Dissatisfied Existence" a bunch. Ultimately not as entertaining as the first Thrash Anthems, but still damn solid, and I think Destruction has done a far better job of modernizing its material while 'keeping it real', where a lot of their peers have faltered on similar re-recordings.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Under Attack (2016)

After 30 years and well over a dozen albums, Destruction is a band which, to me, tends to transcend all expectations. If they were never to make a record again which could match their flawless, fun post reunion effort The Antichrist, or even channel an effective nostalgia for their streak of innovative, 80s excellence, I doubt I would feel robbed. I think they've very likely shown us the full range of what they have to offer, without some drastic mutation like putting out a techno single; and if their own catalogue isn't enough, you can dip into the superb Headhunter discography, or the Panzer supergroup that Schmier recently took part of. Whether or not Destruction is going to write another classic is moot at this point, so the fact that they're still churning out some solid, energetic thrash is sort of...beyond what I might ask for, and while Under Attack does little to distance or deviate itself from this 'stay the course' mentality they've been locked into for 15 years, then that might just be enough. I said the same thing in 2012, for an album I found surprisingly catchy, but that one ultimately did have a mildly different feel to it.

Not so for Under Attack: this is pure, 21st millennium, muscular thrash metal which more or less comes across as an unerring sequence of remodeled, rearranged, riffs from their 80s era, only with the 'boon' of modern production which actually works against it, rendering it nigh indistinguishable from 4-5 of their other reunion era recordings. Voluminous, punchy rhythm guitars playing strings of notes and chords that don't possess a lot of nuance individually, but grant the listener enough variation that he or she isn't going to be too concerned as long as the neck can be strained, which with cuts like these is never really in question. The lead guitars here are actually pretty good, though, possessed of a style which seems to outlast their brevity, and most importantly, this just oozes Schmier's charismatic, strained snarls and roars to the extent that he might have recorded them all as prepwork for a "Nailed to the Cross" or "Thrash 'Til Death" and just saved them for now. He sounds like he's been taking some sort of miracle enhancement pill for his throat, and his bass lines are still fat and omnipresent even where they're not turning away from Mike's untiring, masterful ground work.

This is now Vaaver's third full-length within the ranks and he's hammering away with enough force that his presence instantly brings the Destruction beat system into line with other modern, extreme acts who might play faster and more technically, but not 'harder'. All of this adds up to what is just a consummately professional, pure, nasty Teutonic thrash blowout, at best semi-catchy in pieces like "Generation Nevermore" or "Pathogenic", at worst never really lagging behind much of the other material they've spewed out these last couple decades. The cleaner guitars add just a sliver of variety to the proceedings, tasteful and never overstaying their use, and whilst the bonus material, a cookie cutter cover of Venom's "Black Metal" and a re-recording of the original "Thrash Attack" from Infernal Overkill, are pretty safe choices, they don't allow the sum energy of the disco to falter. In the end, while this is unquestionably going to feel redundant to a lot of listeners, it's a well executed album which I'm going to get a handful of spins out of, but won't last me forever since there just aren't any tunes present that I could consider bonafide future classics for the Germans.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (we don't dare to learn)

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Spiritual Genocide (2012)

It's hard to believe that it's been over a decade since Destruction, a band I had no expectation of enjoying after the early 90s, completely totaled me with The Antichrist and renewed themselves as one of the premier forces in European thrash. Not only that, but that the band has been so productive ever since, with another five studio outings coming down the pipe, that this was no mere 'phase' serving as antidote to the constituents' midlife crises. The caveat is that the 2001 record (their second in the reunion) set the bar so damn high that all of its followers have proven too vertically challenged to reach it. Sure, they've all been moderately enjoyable, with little effort spared in terms of production, but the elephant in the room has yet to be shot for its ivory, and pretty much every release since (with the exception of Thrash Anthems) has felt like a regurgitation of The Antichrist with inferior songwriting: better than most of the retro thrash chaff, indeed, but hardly exemplary.

Enter Spiritual Genocide, and while I still can't shake 'that feeling' that we've been down this road before on one too many journeys, I feel that this record does a better job of reconnecting the listener to the intricate and unique riffing nuances that Schmier and Mike introduced us to in the 80s. There are complexities here, in particular through the bridge and lead sequences in a number of tracks, that feel as if an extra dimension of effort was placed into the composition. Also, many of the stock verse riffs here are pretty well executed, with the exception of a few shoddy breakdown style progressions ("Renegades") that might be forgiven due to the consistency of the remainder. Mike is wise to maintain some variation to his playing through the track list, so unlike a few of its 21st century predecessors there's less of a tendency for the material to 'run together'. You get the playful, clinical speed metal licking in "City of Doom" redolent of Megadeth at their prime, the meaty and oppressive "Riot Squad" where Mike is anchored by Vaaven's intense double bass barrage, the more accessible "Carnivore" which still succeeds in getting a number of surgical thrash riffs, or "To Dust You Will Decay" with its woozy, airier segues of chords. There's just a better sense of pacing throughout than there was on a few of the other recent records like Metal Discharge or Inventor of Evil.

Of course, it's still Destruction through and through, and you'll constantly have that uncanny impression that the band have muscularly redefined the framework and inspiration behind classics like "Mad Butcher" and "Curse the Gods" and given them a new paint job. Schmier's vocals are as squashed and salacious as ever, with a number of sustained sneers and growls to ween them in a contemporary context, loads of backing shouts that make you feel as if you were surrounded by bullet-belted berzerkers having a shoving match with your body. I didn't find a lot of the bass work to really stand out, but the tone is thick enough and Schmier's playing definitely aligns to the very percussive chassis of Mike's riffing. Vaaven is quite likely the hardest hitting drummer the band has had in its career, and Spiritual Genocide is no exception to his low end reign that is a perfect match for all those summer festivals and big tours the band is attached to. This is a dense, masterful modern Destruction mix which isn't a whole lot different than Day of Reckoning, not a problem here since it's not as if I'm expecting the buzzing mayhem of Sentence of Death 2.0.

I felt like the lyrics to "Legacy of the Past" were a bit cheesy, merely a batch of popular thrash/heavy album titles that the Germans 'approve' of mashed into verses, sort of like they did with the bridge of "Thrash 'Til Death" but taken to the extreme. A verbal crossword puzzle of metal masterworks. Otherwise it's a lot of pretty cool sociopolitical posturing which takes on government control, mass media corruption and other topics that hold true today. I found the intro piece "Exordium" relatively useless, an instrumental with some brighter, clean guitars and a drum cadence that doesn't set up "Cyanide" in any effective, meaningful way. On the other hand, the bonus tracks are pretty interesting. There's a second version of "Carnivore" with Tom Angelripper (Sodom) and Gerre (Tankard) guesting, more Teutonic royalty. But I must say that the inflections of the three vocals are so might flow together a fraction too well to really distinguish themselves, and sadly I preferred the version with just Schmier. On the other hand, the cover of Saxon's "Princess of the Night" is fuckin' spot on/ace, an angrier evolution made all the Germans' own through the musculature of the guitar and Schmier's viciousness. Ultimately, Spiritual Genocide is a pretty damn entertaining kick in the chin, superior to Day of Reckoning and any of the band's other full-lengths (of new material) since The Antichrist. Beyond a few niggling flaws, the trio joins countrymen Kreator, Holy Moses and Tankard in keeping things real for the Mayan Apocalypse.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (suffocate on your desire and disgust)

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - The Curse of the Antichrist - Live in Agony (2009)

The Curse of the Antichrist is the third of Destruction's live efforts, but if you consider that Alive Devastation (2002) was only available to most of us an import (or through the Live Discharge DVD in 2004), it's only the second that was wildly available to audiences in Europe or North America. Similar to Sodom's One Night in Bangkok or Kreator's Live Kreation, there are two discs of material, running at about 100 minutes, and drawn from two separate performances, the 2007 Wacken Open Air set and a gig in Japan. Therefor, it does lack some of the flawed honesty of the Alive Devastation set; but let's not forget that the band's excellent 1989 Live Without Sense was culled from a number of gigs.

The material included here is pretty well divided between the band's classic 80s fare and their recent string of 21st century releases, possibly too much in favor of the later. From the most recent album, they include "Urge (The Greed of Gain)", "The Seven Deadly Sins" and the titular "D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N.", and from Inventor of Evil they've incorporated "Soul Collector" and "The Alliance of Hellhoundz", none of which are really essential in my opinion, but the selection makes sense as the band were heavily promoting these efforts at the time. The same could be said for "The Butcher Strikes Back" (All Hell Breaks Loose) and "Metal Discharge" (Metal Discharge), neither of which are great songs, but they of course include post-reunion favorites "Thrash 'Till Death" and "Nailed to the Cross" to compensate. In fact, they include "Thrash 'Till Death" twice, once from each performance, the difference being that the Wacken version has three drum kits storming off in tandem, which adds a truly warlike atmosphere to an already intense fucking song...especially when you consider that the added drums are being performed by Sven Vormann and Oliver Kaiser, the former Destruction members! Touching, no?

The rest of the set hearkens back to the classics most in the audience TRULY want to hear, like "Curse the Gods", "Mad Butcher", "Cracked Brain", "Eternal Ban", "Death Trap", Unconscious Ruins", "Life Without Sense", and "Antichrist", the last being pretty unexpected in the set, and also featuring the three drummer combo. I did feel like some of the material was pretty sloppy, in particular "Cracked Brain" and "Curse the Gods", and did not sound as strong as the band did as a trio on Alive Devastation, but there's still a pervasive, raw freshness which gets the blood stirring enough to listen through. I'd also note that some of the songs are cut down to an almost medley, and some might not appreciate certain riffs missing here or there. I know I didn't, but when you've got only so much time for a set, you do what you can to thrill the audience.

And they sound thrilled here, but ultimately I don't really care for this performance that much. It's cool to hear some of the newer songs I guess, but this in no way can trump the band's ultimate 1989 live offering with its vicious, original appeal. Destruction are a good act live, and one worth checking out if they ever come through your area, and I'd recommend you save the money you'd spend on this for at least most of one ticket's cost. If you can't attend, then track down Live Without Sense or the Live Discharge DVD. The sound and overall set list here is not the greatest, and it's not at all mandatory.

Verdict: Indifference [6.25/10]

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. (2008)

I'm sure everyone was hopeful that, after revisiting their catalog of classics with the Thrash Anthems re-recordings, Destruction would find some inspiration to rise above the din of their past few albums, each of which was but a shadow of The Antichrist, their 2001 epic. Not that Metal Discharge and Inventor of Evil weren't swell enough to avoid the suck-pile, but they were hardly blazing any new trails through the post-atomic landscape that their predecessor created out of the German thrash realm. To that extent, their next album D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. was a marginal success. It's nothing all that new, but there seems to be a slight bit of creative fire being lit here that simply doesn't fully manifest.

Each of the tracks' first letters spells the album title, a grand acronym, but this serves as little more than a distraction. "Devolution" is a positive thrust with some swaying, curving guitars in the predictable chorus, but it's not one of the better pieces here. Those belong to the brutal and caustic "Offenders of the Throne", with its steady, tank-like pace and howling, melodic vocals and chugging escalation; "Urge (The Greed of Gain)" and its labyrinthine battery of riffing and leads; "Inner Indulgence" and its warmer, slow-paced arching rhythms; and "Odyssey of Frustration" which is another Sifringer slug-fest. There's also a nice bonus track of Tank's classic "Shellshock" here (from their 1982 debut Filth Hounds of Hades), but you'll have to have the Japanese version of the CD, or listen to it online. The rest of the new Destruction origins are competent, and energetic, but in all honesty they're just sort of 'there', an aesthetic that has plagued the past few albums from being more than focused simulacra of the unexpected 2001 breakthrough.

That said, the production here is pretty rich, similar to Inventor of Evil and Thrash Anthems. All of the components are in place, and the band show no sign of aging whatsoever in their tireless crusade of Teutonic wrath. They do show a continued lack of effective chorus sequences, no less predictable than a "Nailed to the Cross" but nowhere near as powerful. I love the metallic chugs of the guitar as usual, but the riffs, while solid, are never all that individually ear bending, outside of the few tracks that I mentioned above. There are a couple of guest guitar spots from Vinnie Moore, Jeff Waters and Exodus' Gary Holt, but at least there's no trainwreck party anthem like "The Alliance of Hellhoundz". As for the writing, you don't really hear the tiny leaps in progression with these 21st century albums as you did in the 80s, and it might be time that Schmier and Sifringer considered trying to launch themselves along a more interesting, relevant and R.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N.A.R.Y. vector, rather than just putting out the same album time and time again with mild variations.

D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. is punishing and polished, but it's far from perfect, and you know they once again could be with some further time and effort.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (dead and buried in the stillborn ego)

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Thrash Anthems (2007)

When it comes to bands re-recording their classic material for a new era, my opinion varies greatly. Are they just doing it to cash in on some unexpected, late wave of success? Are they attempting to better integrate a new band member, like a vocalist, to both their back catalog of material and their fan base? Does this new member bring something essential and different to the table? Or does the band honestly think the original version are lacking due to either mistakes made long ago, or the massive leaps in studio technology that have manifest since the original incarnation. Often, the result of such an undertaking is an outright, unwelcome failure, like the recent Exodus CD which affixed Rob Dukes' vocals to their 80s classics, or Bethlehem's attempt to re-release S.U.I.Z.I.D. with Kvarforth's vocals. Sometimes, it's simply unnecessary and adds nothing of value to a band's legacy (Tankard, Amorphis, and many others). But rarely, it succeeds with room to spare, and Destruction's Thrash Anthems is one such example.

We knew this was coming, of course. We could see it miles away. As soon as we spun those new reunion records, All Hell Breaks Loose or The Antichrist, at the turn of the century, we knew they sounded so blasted good that it was guaranteed there would be updates. What stuns me is just how loyal the band is to their beloved back catalog, including a lot of their best material with a rich, stunning new production that will have fans of "Thrash 'Till Death" throwing their horns, and possibly appease the younger crowd who take the evolutionary leaps in recording quality that they've known all their lives for granted; who might listen back on a Sentence of Death or Eternal Devastation and never cease their impetuous whining. But it works. It works, because there is not some new front man strolling in to help rewrite the script. Almost all of these songs were Schmier and Sifringer to begin with, and they remain Schmier and Sifringer here, outside of "Cracked Brain", which we'll remember from André Grieder's brief tenure in the band. The Rosenmerkel era of the 90s is completely ignored, which is no surprise.

Well, the jury has delivered the verdict of 'incredible' here, because almost every track sounds like it's been giving life. About the only regret would be if you're a diehard for the raw mirth of their first few regrets, in which case you might not appreciate the thicker, potent tones. Mark Reign was obviously not around for those early sessions, but I have to admit he doe a thundering job with the material, and he's one of the major reasons that this functions. Surely the band did not have nearly as strong a drummer back in the 80s, not for lack of trying, but simply because drums back then were still heavily rock influenced and not brought forth so powerfully. Classics like "Total Desaster", "Mad Butcher", "Reject Emotions" and "Life Without Sense" are all given new life here, and there are even a few less expected pieces like "Death Trap" (Infernal Overkill) or "Sign of Fear" (Release from Agony) made tremendous in their translation here.

The one exception is, unshockingly, "Cracked Brain". It's given a much thicker, heavier vibe by the mix here, but I didn't find Schmier's vocals as charming as Grieder's were on the 1990 recording, and the lower, brutal notation scheme also loses some of the original's appeal. Not a bad remake, but I'd never feel an impulse to listen to this version. So that the older fans are not completely underwhelmed by what's come before, Destruction has also included two new tracks, a mid paced twister named "Profanity" and "Deposition (Your Head Will Roll)". The former is pretty typical of the band's past album Inventor of Evil, but once the latter gets through its down-pitched narrative intro, it tears out a few half-decent, bombastic guitars and a mildly thick chorus with layered thrash and death metal-style vocals. Neither is all that valuable, but it's cool that they're included so that Thrash Anthems is not just a total retrofit.

In the end, this is one of those very scarce albums which offers value despite its redundancy, and I've found that it sounds maddeningly awesome in my car stereo and headphones. The songs still maintain their thriving, ballistic energy despite the intervening decades, and with this they can match the tonal penetration of the more modern classics from The Antichrist. Granted, a small part of me prefers the originals, but in some of the cases here, like the Eternal Devastation and Infernal Overkill material, I could find myself to appreciate these just as often. The new tracks don't matter much, and obviously nostalgia is better served by dashing back to the originals in all cases, even for new fans (this album doesn't cover everything), but I think this is easily worth owning if just to crank it and bang your head until your thoughts go blank.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Inventor of Evil (2005)

Continuing the streak of 21s century productivity, Inventor of Evil once again saw Destruction adorned in their modern studio ethics, with an effective polish that mirrors The Antichrist. 2003's Metal Discharge had of course been a letdown after that masterpiece, but this album summoned froth a little more diversity in its composition, and ultimately squeaks by in its overall quality. That's not to say that there aren't a few mishaps along the way, or that Inventor of Evil is built of the same fiber as any of their classics, but enough happens to hold off the wolves for another few years, and it seems that, beyond their miserable 90s output, an underwhelming Destruction is still a force worth some consideration.

"Soul Collector" erupts with brick heavy guitar rhythms and bass that bounces right up against it like seal infantry assaulting a shore, another down-pitched vocal intro that honestly doesn't add much to the flavor of the track or the album, but it eventually becomes a straight up onslaught with a few segues of curving, surgical guitar. "The Defiance Will Remain" does a lot less for me, and when the song title is predictably spat forth late in the chorus, it feels all too similar to "Nailed to the Cross", albeit briefly. Then the band launches into the most astonishing, awkward cut on the album, "The Alliance of Hellhoundz", which is like a USA for Africa supergroup of European metal musicians, only instead of performing "We Are the World" they're thrashing out over some admittedly average guitars that do very little to highlight the individual talents the band have brought on board.

Seriously, there are like 20 guest vocalists on this track, and they're each dispensed in a few lines that mesh together into Sifringer's leads and Schmier's guidance. A few of them are distinct, like Messiah of Candlemass or Peavy of Rage in his lower range, but so many of them are lost in the woodwork. Some like Doro just sound bad, and then you've got a few barked or growled lines from Speed (Soilwork) or Shagrath (Dimmu Borgir) that just don't stand out. I also barely noticed Biff Byford, Paul Di Anno and Mark Osegueda to my disappointment. An interesting concept, this, but you know what might have pepped up the entire album? If they had spread out the guest vocals among separate tracks. Same level of gimmick, but less overwhelming. At the very least I came out of this wanting to hear Messiah Marcolin front an entire German thrash album... (more thrash than Memento Mori, at least).

Once the smoke clears, the album is left to sweep up the remains, and it does so admirably through a few of the better songs, strategically located right in the center of the proceedings, like the mid-paced but focused "No Mans Land" or the thundering belligerence that carries "The Chosen Ones". "Dealer of Hostility", "Under Surveillance" and the playful "Twist of Fate" also have a few choice riffs between them, but the overall construction is not as strong. There are a few bonus tracks including a Schmier-only version of "The Alliance of Hellhoundz" which does not spare us from the mediocrity of the music, and also a by the numbers rendition of "We Are the Road Crew" by Motörhead, which sounds glossy and knife-sharp in the Germans' hands, but doesn't really add much value here.

Packaged with another cover homage to the band's 'Mad Butcher' mascot, Inventor of Evil makes for another grisly, attractive addition to your discography. Functional enough as a head jerking, angry thrash dosage, but rather fruitless in terms of the memorable choruses and riffs that paved the band's road through the 80s or earlier 21st century. You could skip this entire album and not be the worse for wear, but at least half of the tracks deliver the neck breaking you seek, just don't go seeking this out for any 'curiosity' about their 'party' song. I think we already had enough grandstanding self-glorification with "Thrash Till Death" to last us a lifetime, never mind "Metal Discharge" or "The Alliance of Hellhoundz". We get it already. You're back. You're happy. We're happy to have you. Stop celebrating and kick our asses like "Mad Butcher" and "Total Desaster"! This is a trend I really hope the band will drop for future releases.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (havoc and haze)

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Metal Discharge (2003)

There was absolutely no way in hell that Destruction were going to surpass their 2001 album The Antichrist. Not on its immediate follow-up, and most likely not EVER, so we can't really come down too hard on Metal Discharge for what it is: a series of similar sounding songs that follow in the same punctuation, with the same general production standards and a new drummer in place: Mark Reign. That being said, their 8th-full length (counting The Least Successful Piece of Shit) does maintain all of the band's trademark viciousness with a consistency that shouldn't have crushed the loyal Destruction fan's expectations, and if you were paying attention throughout the 90s, you'll realize that this is far from their worst offense against all creation.

Where Metal Discharge lacks is the songs that immediate grasp the listener, like the legendary "Thrash 'Til Death" or "Nailed to the Cross" from the previous album. "The Ravenous Beast" is fast and manic, and there are some intricate melodic guitars woven into its midst, but it conjures nothing more than the appropriate thrashing momentum. The chorus fails to dominate, and it's but a warm-up for the slightly superior, frenzied title track. This is obviously the self-referential attempt at a new "Thrash 'Til Death", but despite a pretty pumped chorus it just doesn't catch. Do we really picture a crowd of people shouting 'Metal Discharge'? Sure, they'll mock Jesus or celebrate their own favorite pastime with the infamous crowd pleasures from The Antichrist, but I just don't picture them discussing their discharge. Eww. After this, the album takes a turn with the more melodic, melancholic drudging of "Rippin' the Flesh Apart", which breaks momentum with its slower verses, but isn't all that bad.

"Fear of the Moment" and "Mortal Remains" represent some of the stronger tunes on the CD, the former screaming along and leaving bullet cases in its wake, the latter using a catchier, mid paced riff sequence that wouldn't have been out of place on Cracked Brain, but then even these are pale in comparison to the 3rd and 4th seats on The Antichrist wagon ("Bullets from Hell" and "Godfather of Slander"), and the album proceeds to get worse with "Desecrators of the New Age" or "Made to Be Broken", songs I wouldn't be able to remember if you had me trained to respond via jarring electrical stimulation. "Savage Symphony of Terror" is most likely the best on the latter half of the album, with hammering, bloodied brutality coursing through its veins, but it also fails to leap out from the page.

Metal Discharge is not mandatory listening by any measurement, but if you're planning on acquiring it then you'd likely want the extended version, which features a handful of solid covers and some demo material. Schmier and the gang do a naturally bang-up job of "Whiplash" and Iron Maiden's "Killers", and they also tackle "Fuck the U.S.A." by The Exploited, which is, well, not a great song to begin with. Demo versions of "Metal Discharge", "The Butcher Strikes Back" and "Nailed to the Cross" are not necessary in lieu of their official album counterparts, but some might enjoy the remake of "Bestial Invasion" (though the one on Thrash Anthems is superior). With these tracks included, the album falls safely into the 'good' category, but it's really only worth owning if you collect all the band's studio releases. Metal Discharge might have had the unfortunate task of cleaning up after one of the greatest thrash albums in German history, but even had it not, there is not an excess of praise to be said for it.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (call it culture of the brainsick)

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Alive Devastation (2002)

Destruction's 1989 offering Live Without Sense remains as perhaps my favorite single live thrash album of all time, proving the Germans could do a great job with the format; and coming off their studio masterpiece in The Antichrist, I had accumulated some rather high hopes for Alive Devastation, despite the fact that it would only initially be coming out only in Japan (US fans can acquire it within the Live Discharge: 20 Years of Total Destruction DVD package and avoid the steep import price). Unlike it's predecessor, this album was recorded as a 3-piece, so I was a bit curious to see how the guitars would sound in the setting, and since the band had recently swapped out Sven Vormann, it would also be interesting to hear how the new guy Mark Reign would perform (he'd played in some obscure death and black metal acts prior to Destruction).

Well, this is no Live Without Sense, but I am satisfied that the band has at least done a decent job of shuffling their older and new material here, and the stage sound doesn't seem to suffer from the lack of an extra guitarist whatsoever, since Schmier's frenzied presence and the material is simply too strong not to succeed. The tracks from both eras seem to flow seamlessly into one another, and there are a number of favorites to be had. "Nailed to the Cross", "Bullets from Hell" and "Thrash Til Death" are naturally included from their most recent studio offering, The Antichrist, and they've also summoned up "Machinery of Lies", "Tears of Blood" and "The Butcher Strikes Back" from the prior effort, All Hell Breaks Loose. The remainder of the set is rounded out by essential classics like "Mad Butcher", "Eternal Ban", "Curse the Gods", "Bestial Invasion", "Invincible Force", "Life Without Sense", and of course "Total Desaster". It's an extremely safe selection, and granted all of the older material was incorporated on the 1989 album, but the riffs still feel fresh and visceral, and the performances of the entire trio are commendable.

What's interesting is that there are some technical difficulties in the set, Sifringer's amp cutting out, and the band chose to just leave them all on the recording. It's a fairly honest maneuver, and seems to do nothing to dissuade the Wacken 2002 crowd, who merely shout and encourage the band patiently from off-stage. Schmier also drops a lot of f-bombs on stage, perhaps too often that it feels cheesy, as if he's got a serious profanity problem (despite the guitar malfunction), but this doesn't have anything to do with the actual songs being hammered out. His voice isn't as peak and surgical sounding as it might have been in the late 80s, but it's still executed very well, and I'm sure there are many who prefer them on the more recent releases. Alive Devastation is not exactly a fan's dream; I would never choose it over Live Without Sense; but it's good for what it is, and certainly worth owning if you can snag it along with Live Discharge. Just don't bother importing the original live-only album unless you're a glutton for punishment (it's probably about $40 US if you can find it.)

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - The Antichrist (2001)

Many seem compelled to call The Antichrist the 'comeback' album for Destruction, but this not chronologically nor logically the case. The sound here is one lifted straight from its predecessor, All Hell Breaks Loose, but pummeled into perfection. That album was a fresh act of violence borne from a stagnant musical relationship, while this is like a freight train hitting you at a thousand miles an hour, a mushroom cloud being formed over your conscience, an instant window to everything you loved about this band in the 80s and then some. Yes, folks, it's time to dust off that trap door in the basement, stock up on canned beans and hide the children, because prolonged exposure to The Antichrist will melt your face off, and incinerate all the loved ones surrounding you. In fact, it's most likely the greatest thrash metal effort yet released in the 21st century.

This is not praise I lavish lightly upon anything, because the genre is perhaps my most beloved and I seem to take it far more seriously than most. It's not a joke to me, and it's far more than a fashion statement. It's perhaps the most energetic and relevant of all metal substrata, but it very often needs a swift kick in the ass to prove so, since so many of the younger practitioners seem to focus solely on a few of the peripheral elements like getting drunk and looking cool in clothes that were long out of style years before they had even achieved an embryonic state. The Antichrist is just such a swift kick in the ass, and though it does arguably bear one nostalgic, self-referential statement as its flagship, it is largely the product of both social and political unrest that defines most of the very best material in this genre. Destruction were older, wiser, and wicked pissed (pardon the Boston in me), and this is the ultimate, unrestrained manifestation of their wrath upon the unsuspecting, passive, sheepish multitude.

This is accomplished with a tone as hard as steel girders being lobbed from a high rise down upon the audience, crushing spines and craniums aplomb. Special credit must be given to the Abyss Studios' and Hypocrisy/Pain mogul Peter Tägtgren for producing and recording the finest work of his studio career, because the mix easily surpasses All Hell Breaks Loose and clings to the remarkable songwriting like leathery plates to a mutant armadillo, protected it across the nuclear landscape while allowing it to better impact the feral hostiles it voraciously tramples. Actually, an armadillo does not do The Antichrist justice. It's more like the bony frills of a triceratops. Truly an impressive work of engineering which perfectly places into perspective the storming payload of Sven Vormann's percussion, the unfathomable riffing riots of Mike Sifringer, and both the bottom end sewage and malicious bark of Marcel Schirmer.

All of this might seem meaningless without the songs to match the unparalleled sonic muster, but The Antichrist has them to spare. Remember when thrash metal albums had songs that you could repeat over and over in your head and to your friends until they hated your fucking guts? Remember the 80s? It seemed like such an advent was prehistoric in 2001, so the Germans decided it was time to unshelf the practice and return it to the fore, so the catchy acoustics and cheesy, endearing pitch-shifted narration of the "Days of Confusion" intro herald a track that would immediately launch itself into history, and probably every Destruction setlist since: "Thrash 'Til Death". The title had been used before, and in all honesty, if it were not one of the original 80s bands doing this, I might have felt the purpose of the track fairly sour. Thankfully, in the hands of this trio, it's simply amazing, with inspirational lyrics that pay tribute to both the loyal thrash fans and artists...

A brief flyby will reveal references in the lyrics to Exodus, Kreator, Possessed, Overkill, Living Death and of course Destruction themselves in what might be the most thinly veiled, shameless self-promotion in thrash history, and the chorus of 'Immortal soul, takes control, immortal soul, thrash 'til death!' is one that would be instantly glued to everyone's tongue. But we're only one song in, and the bastards have more in store, starting immediately with the brick laying rhythms of "Nailed to the Cross", manifest through stampeding guitars and a chorus that dwarfs even its predecessor, one of the greatest (if too obvious) anti-Christian anthems in history, even more entertaining than the bands' own "Curse the Gods". Even the admittedly rock breakdown in the bridge at about 2:00 is good, with Schmier weaving his bass lines like a barbwire fence into the pick-up riff before the final chorus. Already, within about 8 minutes of its existence, this album has propelled itself into the annals of legend, and yet rather than settle on their laurels and pad the content with a slew of filler, there is no end to the violent jubilation.

"Dictators of Cruelty" has a lot of the forward thrust reminiscent of something written for Artillery's By Inheritance or B.A.C.K., while "Bullets from Hell" creates a granite, circular, complex rhythm that makes it impossible to sit still, you just want to bang your head so hard and throw your seat into the nearest window. "Strangulated Pride", "Creations of the Underworld" and "The Heretic" all barrel through the mix like 18 wheelers on autopilot, racing straight to a stockpile of explosives, but there are also some finely executed deviations like the winding, exotic scaling course of "Meet Your Destiny", the feisty muted grooves and discordant gleams within "Let Your Mind Rot", and perhaps even greater, the tasteful, voluptuous onslaught of "Godfather of Slander", which takes yet another compulsive lunge at the Church, or rather a particular individual within its questionable eaves.

42 minutes of calculated concussion. No filler to be found anywhere. Simple and yet strangely effective lyrics. A formula of devastation so assured and convincing that Destruction have been using it repeatedly since (with diminishing returns, since few of their later songs hit home quite so hard). This album is so good that one wonders how much we'd been robbed in the 90s when Schimier and Sifringer had gone their separate ways. Try and imagine if The Antichrist had come out in 1991. It might have saved the entire genre for the next 10 years (irony intended). Then what might they have been capable of in the next century? Well, perhaps I'm sobbing in the spilled milk at such theory, but there's no question that this album at least helped spark a thrash resurgence in the past decade, even if so few other bands have been able to come close to its level of polish and hostility. If you don't own this, you are wrong.

Verdict: Epic Win [10/10] (why don't you fuckin' surrender)

http://www.destruction.de/

Destruction - Day of Reckoning (2011)

That well over 30 years into their existence, Destruction shows no obvious sign of aging or slowing down, is a testament to the band's authenticity and drive. They've taken their lumps, they've returned from the backlash of an entire decade, and they are still writing tunes that pound most thrash initiates into hamburger. Yet, despite the general quality of everything the band has released since Schmier and Mike reunited at the turn of the century, I have the sense that they peaked with The Antichrist and have simply been rewriting that album ever since. Whereas their 80s records marked a clear streak of evolution, through the roughness of Sentence of Death to the precision of Mad Butcher and fractured brilliance of Release from Agony; their past four efforts all inhabit the same plane.

As a result, Metal Discharge, Inventor of Evil and D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. all lacked the distinction that the Germans destroyed us with in now legendary tracks like "Nailed to the Cross" and "Thrash 'Til Death", and Day of Reckoning is really just more of the same. Of course, this could be seen as a positive from certain standpoints. The mix of the instruments is once more ground into a meaty paste of perfection, with Sifringer's guitars and Schmier's snarling retorts sharing the spotlight of the butcher block evenly, and a rhythm section that can manhandle anyone else in the business. The lyrics and titles all carry that same sense of anger and velocity we could so appreciate from The Antichrist: "Hate is My Fuel", "Armageddonizer", and "Church of Disgust" just a few of the delicious morsels of maladjustment. But though they've laid out all the expected bricks for another rowdy crowd pummeling, the ultimate structure is one that can only weather the most common of storms, and not the blazing ravages of time.

It's a Destruction album without Thomas Rosenmerkel, and that equates to their being at least some noteworthy content, even if it's not about to challenge an "Eternal Band" or "Curse the Gods" for the career highlight reel. "Armageddonizer" is low-down and angry, especially the vocals through the minor twists and grooves. "Day of Reckoning" itself opens with some tasty Sifringer excess, blinding melodies trailing off into the sinister radioactive waste-scape. "Sorcerer of Black Magic" stands as perhaps the most interesting writing on the album, with great vocal effects and a cautiously built into segment that continues to rise like a warhead, thick riffing and latest drummer Vaaver's kicks like hammers of judgment pounding in the skull of the listener. "The Demon is God" and "Sheep of the Regime" both have their share of gladiatorial riffing and vexed insights, and at the risk of charges of metal heresy, I enjoy the cover of Dio's "Stand Up and Shout" just as much if not more than the Holy Diver original...especially the brief lead.

In the end, here is another case where they've done just about everything right, except breach the memory with their songwriting. Any individual track here would integrate fluidly with their material of the past decade at live shows, and yet I'm not sure many of the tracks would last long in a classic Destruction set list. It's a stronger album than the latest from Teutonic fellows Tankard or Sodom, and it'll sound great blasting out of headsets, car stereos or home rigs alike, but I didn't really find myself mouthing any of its riffs or vocals even after a number of listens. Day of Reckoning is good. The trio still sounds as enthusiastic and menacing as they did at any point in the last decade, and I'd take this any day over 90% of the new thrash being released by new acts, but I'll just have to keep my horns crossed for something more compelling to come.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.destruction.de/