Destined for Extinction

Sometimes, when you think that a thing will forever be in one way, here that a sort of small “miracle” happens. Blessed Death band was an Exciter clone in 1985 with their debut album but just two years after, an unexpected thing came to support a sort of a new life for the band: Destined For Extinction. This second album pointed more on the pure thrash metal components, while the structures are now far more mature and catchy. So, delete almost complete the Exciter style of the first album from your mind and prepare to listen to another band in style and intensity.

The production is always quite raw, especially if we consider the drums and the guitars. The volumes are quite low and the instruments are dry in distortion but since the first notes of “Digital war” we can notice some changes. First of all, the structures and the riffs are more complex and they don’t lack, anyway, in intensity. The vocals are darker and far better to sustain a higher utilize of the classic, thrasher, palm muting riffage. There is some galloping riff too and this time the open chords ones are less abused. The stop and go with the furious restarts are really dark and violent. The solos are more or less the same ones we could find on the debut but they are good for the atmosphere.

The high pitched vocals are less present, as I said and the thrash metal styled raspy tonality is better in this case. “Pain Killer” mixes together good mid-paced parts in which the guitars do lots of good duets to incredibly nasty fast sections in which everything is more impulsive and also the vocals are incredibly vicious in their blend of dark parts and the classic speed metal shriek. “10000 Days Of Bloodshed” has the sound of the hammering bass to start and after awhile the massacre continues with fast as light tremolo solos and incredibly impulsive up tempo parts. These parts are just obliterating and what about the riffs?? Holy shit, this time they reached unbelievable peaks of brutality.

Sometimes, the vocals by Portelli are so high in tonality that they pierce your hears without mercy and they last for lots of seconds! I can’t believe that a skilled singer like he is didn’t receive credit. However, if on the first album he could result a bit boring and monotonous for that continued high tonality, this time his growth concerning the lower tones is majestic. Sometimes, the very first influences from Exodus are really heavy and this adds dynamism to the sound. “Incoming Wounded” is remarkabkle more for the dark sections during his length and the arpeggios. The vocals are far calmer and really evocative. Here the most power/thrash influences ala Flotsam & Jetsam are heavier. The rest is an obliterating mix of fast palm muting parts, up tempo and dry solos.

With “Pray for your Death” we reach abused limits for the vocals, especially during the refrain. The up tempo parts seem never ending and the brutal thrash metal elements are heavier. However, they can put out several good, less impulsive stops. “Death in the Sky” has massive Onslaught oriented riffs and the classic, old school drums up tempo beats. The speed metal components turn to be always less and less audible even if something has remained and that is good. Once again the refrain is easily recognizable and the good mid-paced sections give us time to relax a bit. “Curse of Weapons” has a more melodic riff by the beginning and the atmosphere is darker. Soon the tempo turns to be far more impulsive and typical of the thrash metal.

The last, “Destruction’s Eve”, has a dark and slow beginning. The guitars are profound and everything is more focused on the atmosphere while the fast restarts are more melodic for the vocals but the instruments are always beating hard till the end of this good thrash metal follow up to the shabby and still immature speed metal debut. This time the structures are more assorted and the various, more melodic breaks are here to say that the evolution has been achieved. There’s violence, there are more relaxed parts and the songwriting enjoys these things. The technical level of these musicians has grown also so I can just promote them to a good level, finally.