Destruction

Metal Discharge (Nuclear Blast)
by MartinPopoff

Germany’s most beloved frantic thrashers (there’s something somehow dearer and more personable about Destruction versus Kreator or Sodom) are back with their third post-reunion album, and it’s a wily, cogent mix between old and new. The old comes with the organic, 24-track, non-ProTools production, the album sounding high-strung and punky – both a positive and negative compared to the steel tones of The Antichrist. As well, Schmier is loopy, hysterical on vocals, bringing back the eccentricity of the neurotic neckbrace material of old, an emotion caught like barbed wire in the catchy speed riff buttressing “Fear of the Moment.”

Love Mike’s rat’s nest of guitar tones, as well as Reign’s manic panic drumming, the band emerging out the end of the frightening fray as one of the only power metal trios capable enough to pack this much artery-blockage into ten songs. One feels the vibe of both Death Angel and of early Destruction, and that is a tangle of shredded nerves worth drinking about.
(2323 W. El Segundo Blvd. Hawthorne, CA 90250)