Destruction – Thrash Anthems
I honestly don’t get releases like this, or why a classic band would want to invest the time and cash to even undertake such an endeavor. “Thrash Anthems” is a 15 track, best of/career retrospect so to speak where 2 new songs sit alongside 13 of Destructions genre defining old songs, but completely re-recorded to represent their more modern, Abyss Studios, Peter Tagtgren crunchy thin guitar buzzing, clicky triggered drum snap, “The rebirth of Destruction” sound. I gotta admit… I had many misgivings regarding Destruction’s, or any once dominating band for that matter, reformation. It always feels like a cash grab to me and the bands in question generally slag their old stuff saying it was immature music with an immature sound, but their more modern metal, tough guy persona is what they always wanted to play. Fucking whatever! Destruction never discredited their older material and I was pleasantly surprised that I liked a large amount of their reunion CDs which found them firmly upholding their superior thrash roots. Granted… I rarely listen to them. Looking back at Destructions past efforts, of all the classic releases from “Sentence of Death” all the way to “Release From Agony”, to me, all the releases sound great (with the exception of Release… love the material, but I always thought that one sounded too clean and kind of clunky) and the way they should sound, holding up amazingly well even today. Even though it has been interesting to hear “Invincible Force”, “Bestial Invasion”, “Death Trap” and “Curse the Gods” with a new paint job so to speak, really… is there anything here that would force me away from the original recordings? Hell no! Not even a shiney new rendition of “Cracked Brain” with Schmeir? OK… that was kind of interesting… a glimpse into the 4th Destruction full-length that COULD HAVE been? The answer remains NO! I guess I’d be more impressed if they played all this stuff live, which they may on this tour, but having all of this sitting on my local corporate CD shop’s rack really isn’t enough to inspire me to want to run out and buy it. “Thrash Anthems” must be geared towards new Destruction converts who didn’t bask in the glory days of this technical marvels youth and are hungry to delve back to see how this band built their empire. I will say… Schmeir sounds in top form. Mike remains an overlooked 666 stringed god and Destruction still has “it”. The fake/triggered sounding drum kit really kills this for me, but in hindsight…. This disc does do its job, making me want to listen to the originals as soon as I’m done with this review. So with no further adieu… -Marty
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