Destruction

Thrash Anthems

Candlelight 2007

Destruction is a great band but they were my least favorite of the unholy trinity of Germanic thrash who also included legendary acts Kreator and Sodom.  To me their songs though more complicated and involving seemed to lack the hard hitting punch of the other two mentioned acts.  Anyways, I guess that is a bit of a different but related tangent.  So on to Thrash Anthems which is basically 2 new tracks along with 13 rerecorded classics.  The two new tracks are thrashy and very modern sounding.  The 13 rerecorded "classics" span a quite a bit of their early career including Cracked Brain which was a mild surprise to me as I figured they would stay almost exclusively to the first 3 releases.  Basically Destruction have taken those older songs and updated their sound and polished them with a tight and punchy mix that makes them sound very contemporary and "classy."  All the instruments and even the vocals are so full and meaty sounding.  But therein lies the conundrum, the originals had some pretty bad production in the grand scheme of things but the songs managed to shine because of the layers of grime and the thin sound and I feel that this updating they have undergone has robbed them of some of the energy and vitality that the originals had spewing forth from them in spades.  But now even though they sound "better" they just don't have the same sort of youthful naivety that filled them full of a sort of "evil" and charm that made them instant classics.  But if you've always thought that they could have been done better and that the albums were too sloppy and the guitar solos needed to have more class and talent put into them then this release is for you.  If you worship the originals then steer clear of this album.