Born to Thrash

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.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

While there is much to be said for a band getting the job done in the studio, wherein thrash metal is concerned, an outfit’s mettle is not truly tested until it’s been displayed in the flesh. The peculiar case of Teutonic thrash veterans and over-the-top showmen Destruction is particularly noteworthy given the band’s frequent vacillations between the power trio and quartet arrangement in both a recording capacity and in the live setting, resulting in a number of highly potent yet very different incarnations of the band. Some have been quick to note their original incarnation being in the 3 person arrangement on their first two LPs, culminating in the bulk of their wildly heralded classic songs, yet their debut live offering Live Without Sense is often the most heralded despite featuring the same dual guitar assault that set Release From Agony apart from its predecessors, and their most recent and fourth foray into capturing the concert experience Born To Thrash compares most to said release.

Despite the co-founding half of this fold represented in guitarist Mike Sifringer and bassist/vocalist Schmier being in the throes of middle age, one wouldn’t know it by the youthful exuberance on display by them and similarly aged newcomers to the fold that round out this quartet. Of particular note is the extremely crisp and precise vocal delivery on display here, as Schmier hits every single high note while still managing to lay on that gravely yet powerful growl that makes him only a tad less extreme than Mike Petrozza. The dueling riffs and shred breaks out of Sifringer and recent recruit from the obscure power metal act Gonoreas/Gomorra Damir Eskic rivet in a manner that occasionally reminisces of the flashy and melodic grandeur that Kai Hansen and Michael Weikath brought to Walls Of Jericho, while otherwise conforming to a conventional thrashing flavor in line with the Gary Holts and Kirk Hammetts of the world, while the kit work of long time Primal Fear drummer Randy Black only further brings out this fold’s latent power thrashing tendencies.

The culmination of these performers merging together their diverse yet consistently German stylistic inclinations is a performance that rivals all of the three previous live recordings put together under the Destruction name. The song selection dwells completely upon the two previous apexes of this band’s career, namely the first three albums that took the mid-80s thrash scene by storm, and the early 2000s offerings when Schmier returned from his 1990s hiatus that arguably helped to kick star the ongoing New Wave of Thrash Metal, while also including a couple off their latest LP Born To Perish that could arguably be seen as so well suited to the company they keep as to qualify said album as part of a third zenith point. The resulting energy level is a fever pitch of thrashing mayhem that actually makes one thankful that the set runs a little less than an hour in length, because 61 minutes of this degree of intensity would probably leave most mortals with irreparable neck injuries.

For the most part, this showing conforms to a working class approach to getting the job done on stage, forsaking any gimmicks and elaborate segues for a direct auditory celebration of metal played fast and ferocious. Occasional in-between song rants out of Schmier notwithstanding, this is about as concise of a delivery as one would expect out of a band looking to leave a lasting impression, and classic bangers that blur the lines between Slayer-styled chromatic dissonance and German speed metal such as “Curse The Gods” and “Mad Butcher” lay some deep ones right in the listener’s skull. Generally the older classics from the mid-80s tend to pack the greatest punch, but more recent pummeling thrashers like “Born To Perish” and the slightly more modernized throwbacks off 2001’s Antichrist “Nailed To The Cross” and “Thrash Till Death” give them a solid run for their money and showcase a band willing to stick to their stylistic guns despite what decade it happens to be.

If there’s any selling point that separates this from any of the previous exemplary live offerings that this band has dished up over the past 3 decades, it is that the dueling leads of Sifringer and Eskic give this a tad more of a technical edge and provides a bit more of a bridge to those people who prefer a more melodic brand of German speed represented in the likes of Primal Fear and Paragon, and might consider Kreator and Sodom to be a tad too brutal for their liking. Nevertheless, this outing pulls zero punches and lays on the heaviness quite brazenly, to the point that one has to wonder if the current crop of new wave thrashers know what they’ve gotten themselves into by adopting the Teutonic aesthetic. Following yet another excellent studio display in Born To Perish, this is the sort of supplemental offering that should be enjoyed at full volume by any and all self-respecting thrashers, and will prove a viable alternative to the real thing during this ongoing era of the quarantine blues.

Originally written for Sonic Perspectives (www.sonicperspectives.com)