Review of Destruction - Thrash Anthems

If the artwork wasn’t a dead give away, let me make it clear that this is not a new Destruction album per se. This is basically a best of album with all the songs being re-recorded, no doubt to skirt copyright issues with the labels that own the original recordings.

Now an occasional re-record of a classic song is acceptable, but an entire album of them bothers me for a couple reasons. One, it’s basically admitting you signed a contract for a certain number of albums and couldn’t come up with any fresh ideas so you just re-recorded the songs you play live anyway. Any band worth their salt, especially one that’s been playing for 20+ years, could probably bang out a fifteen song set in one studio day, making it a cheap recording session for the label and a no brainer for the band. Two, how any band can pretend this is anything other than a cash grab is beyond me. Of course diehard fans will buy an album of all their favorites recorded using today’s much better production techniques, and to that end Destruction delivers nicely here, but I’d much rather buy a remastered version of the original work, complete with its lesser musicianship and inferior recording, because that’s a representation of the band at that current moment, just made to sound a bit better. An album like this sounds more like a cover band playing Destruction classic rather than the band itself.

Like any 'best of' effort, the most critical part of any rehash like this is the song selection, what makes the cut and what doesn’t. There are fifteen songs and, with the exception of "Cracked Brain", all the material is taken from their 80’s work with Infernal Overkill getting slightly more coverage than the others. Although all classics, it’s a bit less comprehensive than their 1992 Best Of. As is now de rigeur with best of albums, there are two new songs, "Deposition (Your Heads Will Roll)" and "Profanity", to make sure diehard fans don’t pass this up. Both new songs are obviously a bit more complex and melodic than the much older straight thrash material but they’re both pretty good, sort of like new Exodus versus older Exodus, different but both good.

I’ll be honest here--this is enjoyable. It’s a treat to hear these classics played with top notch production, but I can’t see myself listening to this over the original material even if it’s played by one of the better German thrash bands of all time. Not to mention the 1992 Best Of has almost all these songs plus several more making it the better investment for newbie fans looking to get into Destruction. Still, for diehard fans this will be easy to add your collection without having to worry about pesky things like learning new lyrics to shout along with.

Release Details

Destruction

Thrash Anthems

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