After the departure of front man
Schmier,
Destruction was starting to going downhill in their career. But
Schmier returned to the band with recharge batteries and
Destruction was back on the road. Their latest albums has been filled with massive thrashing energy and furious aggression, this is also combined with excellent musicianship and sharp vocal work. This is probably one of the best thrash-metal bands in this day if you compare them to the American thrash-veterans, such as
Megadeth,
Anthrax and
Metallica.
Destruction alongside countrymen
Kreator and
Sodom became a important thrash-trio during the 80’s in their home country called Germany, the bands were influencing bands and even genres all over the world (though it was
Kreator who was the biggest influence). All these bands are still active to this day and they are still making mayhem and destruction in the world of metal.
Destruction released
’’The Antichrist’’, an album filled with high-quality thrash-metal but then the band got a new drummer and a new album was starting to taking shape. This album was about to be called
’’Metal Discharge’’, even this album seemed to have thrash-metal that really did some damage, but this album wasn’t so flawless as the previous album. Some people might think that this was one of the less good and others may think that this album was one of their better, but I got stuck right in the middle. I have both heard
’’The Antichrist’’ and
’’Inventor Of Evil’’ but this album came right after I’ve heard these two, and I can say that there was a pretty big difference between this album and the other two. This album still had the clear bass, the technical and fast shredding guitars and highly complex and heavy hitting drums, but the vocals was the thing I was confused about. The vocals were still quite sharp and raspy, typical
Schmier style, but it felt like the vocals were terribly edited, it sounded that the vocals were 60% real and 40% edited, it didn’t have the same cutting effect as it had on the other records.
My Positive Thoughts
•
The Energy – This was one thing I thought was good, the band didn’t showed any signs of fatigue, perhaps a little bit but not so much though. The overall material were not letting you to take any breaks or pauses, the songs were very forceful and heavy and they had a good variety, but they all had the same great energy.
•
The Technical Musicianship – This is one of
Destruction’s best traits I must say, the band delivers technical and furious musicianship in all directions. The bass is equally as technical as the guitar, the drumming plays different and catchy patterns in basically every song. Here you have lots of technical stuff, but there is not so much chuga-chuga riffage or melodic soloing. The complexity in the guitar work is very high and the tempo is pretty intense, the soloing is somewhat typical for the genre too, the solos are energetic, chaotic and also quite technical. This is basically great and tight musicianship which will guarantee some head banging.
•
The Production – I thought that the production was equally as good as in the previous album. The bass was maybe a bit low bit it was clear, the guitars did not overshadow any other instrument and the drumming was also greatly mixed. The only thing I thought was bad was the vocals which you can read about in the next section.
My Negative Thoughts
•
The Vocals – This was the only thing that I couldn’t coop with. The other albums had a clearer voice production, but these vocals were nearly butchered by the editing in my opinion. I really enjoy
Schmier’s raspy vocals but this felt a bit annoying and it was hard to digest.
Conclusion
This was a good album indeed but I did not enjoy as much as
’’The Antichrist’’ or
’’Inventor Of Evil’’. Though there was huge highlights as
The Ravenous Beast,
Mortal Remains and
Metal Discharge among others but it was the vocals that ruined the album. The edited vocals did not work along their great musician skills, this was sad to listen at but the quality of the songs compensated the vocals in a pretty good way though. If you like
Destruction you should check this album out, but if you like aggressive and energetic thrash-metal you should also check this out. But I would also recommend this to the thrashers out there because this album won’t disappoint you. Done, hope you liked the format on this album and I also hope that this was an interesting review.
Band Members
Marcel ‘’Schmier’’ Shirmer – Vocals and Bass
Mark Sifiringer – Guitars
Mark Reign – Drums
Pros
+ Excellent musicianship
+ The band still has the intensive thrashing energy
+ This band does not shows any signs of mainstream effect
+ Are you tired of the ‘’destroyed’’ veteran bands? Then you should listen to this band
Cons
- The vocals does not sound good on this album
- The album does show incredible thrash-metal but this album felt a bit rushed
- There are not many highlight songs on this album
Personal Favourites
-- The Ravenous Beast
-- Mortal Remains
-- Metal Discharge
The overall album rating will be a 3.5/5
