Bestial Manifestations of Malevolence and Death

When I was first getting into heavy metal and all its genres, the first genre I really stuck to was thrash metal.  In fact, I still love the genre.  Thrash metal led me to blackened thrash metal, a subgenre that I stuck to again.  It had this aggression and flavor that I could never get out of my head.  I would play bands like Hypnosia, Deströyer 666, Nocturnal Breed, Desaster, and Bulldozer on repeat, never able to satisfy my hunger for blackened thrash blasphemy.  Listening to Oxygen Destroyer for the first time gave me large amounts of nostalgia.

Having a large Hypnosia flare in their music (especially in the vocals), Oxygen Destroyer sounds extremely brutal.  The vocals are blackened and maniacal, the riffs are fast and three-dimensional, and the drums keep up and create a nice flow.  Everything is how it should be, but what about songwriting?  Usually, when it comes to blackened thrash metal, it's difficult to be original.  Hell, with any type of metal, it's hard to be original.  There are the grunts going into certain riffs, a lot of tremolo picking, and a guitar tone that is as sinister as the next blackened thrash band.  And that's exactly where they fail.  You see, unless necessary, I don't judge based on originality.  No band is original except for the originator, and Oxygen Destroyer is definitely not the originator.  But that isn't the issue.  The issue is that they don't have any flare in their riffs, that they're just another blackened thrash metal band.

The riffs are fun.  That's all they have going for them.  Otherwise, there are no groovy, epic, or memorable riffs on this album.  The first track (not the intro) had some cool riffs, but I can't remember how they went.  I can't even remember the basic idea of how they went.  Memorability and epic riffs are what make bands like Hypnosia and Deströyer 666 listenable.  The only reasons this album is listenable for me are that it's fun, it's nostalgic, and it only lasts 29 minutes.

The songwriting here is, again, three-dimensional, meaning that the guitars aren't just riffing the whole time.  Instead they're making use of their two guitars by having one do some leads while the other riffs.  This sounds like a no-brainer, but you'd be surprised how many bands don't take advantage of having two guitarists.  Also, when Oxygen Destroyer incorporates a lead, it doesn't sound forced.  It's natural, like it fits with the flow of the song.  It isn't like one of those "okay, now we have to stop the flow of the entire song so we can fit in a solo" bands.  Not only this, but the drummer is also not just blasting out the whole song.  He changes it up a bit.

As far as the album goes, it's solid.  The production's not bad, and there's a constant flow maintained throughout the whole album.  What it needed was better songwriting and better riffage.  However, on a side note, I love the Kaiju-themed lyrics.

Overall Rating: 74%

Originally written for themetalvoid.wordpress.com