It’s been no secret that most of the thrash metal bands, even the most well known and commercially successful in the genre, were considered to be synonyms of noise and lack of technical skills. That was a fact (at least at the beginning of their career), but unfortunately, for the majority of them, that kept going for decades, resulting in t being disrespected by a large number of metalheads. At last, it seems that the time has come for this theory to explode, since many of the old school thrash bands have started to prove us that the cool and integral riffing, the pounding drumming and the good sound quality is no more a sole trait of the more melodic sound.

This adds Destruction to our list, one of the big three of the German thrash 80’s legend giants, who prove to be more than justified to honor their name. Their eleventh studio album has been released with a change in their line up with «Vaaver» Wawrzyniec Dramowicz taking the place of Marc Reign behind the drums since 2010.

By listening to the first notes of the album, the improvement in every aspect is more than obvious. Intense, fast riffing, great pounding drums from Vaaver with great fillings in every song are completing a furious thrash image, which, fortunately, manages not to remind us a lot of its unenthusiastic predecessor «D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N» of  2008.

The engineering produces a very tight outcome, which leaves the listener with a sweet 80’s feeling, but without the patchwork feeling of that era, while the mixing gives a great result balancing the instruments.

All the tracks, starting with “The price”, which is the opener, have brought us back all the Destruction elements we have loved over the years, such as aggressive riffs, Schmier being more energetic and in better shape than ever, and a much better sound and playing. The songs are mostly based on Mike Sifringer’s intense riffing, whose solos and playing have improved radically.

If we must chose some songs from the album, “Hate Is My Fuel,” “The Demon is God” and ” Day of Reckoning” are among the most representative.

Conclusively, those of you who are fond of inspired, consistent and well played German school thrash metal, should definitely listen to “Day Of Reckoning”, and yes, it is true that some bands become more mature as time goes by, without losing their identity in unfamiliar trails.

A new album for the German thrashers after almost 3 years! Indeed, three years have passed since DEVOLUTION (2008) with its successor called "Day Of Reckoning". With a new drummer called Vavver (Wawrzyniec Dramowicz) after Marc Reign’s departure last year. Destruction present us with a true “headbanging” album!

The album consists of 11 cuts in the normal version with the limited edition of the album to include a bonus track, a cover of DIO’s Stand Up And Shout. In detail, the album is better than the previous work of the German band with compact and non-stop riffs and quite a few solos though I expected more of them. The new drummer seems to fit the band completely and presents his own style in the songs. As for that great figure called Schmier what can one say? The vocals are classic, expected and characteristic Schmier-style the way only he knows.

Destruction, in year 2011, give us a nice album strongly suggested to any fan of the genre which is expected to welcome further notable contributions this year.

Marios Pantazis