Destruction infernal overkill8/22/2023 ![]() Aside from the fact that they were the ones who got me into heavy music, I always found their music extremely unique even after hearing hundreds and hundreds of records in the same genre. I know, there is a couple of those, but Destruction has always been very special to me. The others, though… certainly have their positive points, juxtaposed by their not-so positive points that make it hard to fully enjoy this album.Īfter hearing the devastating news that Mike Sifringer left this band, I couldn't help but relisten to the most crowning achievements of one of the greatest German thrash metal bands of all time. The best songs are fucking terrific and I’d imagine that they’d shook the rafters back in 1985. It’s a crying shame because Infernal Overkill is definitely one of the more unique offerings from the earlier thrash scenes, thanks in part to Mike’s strikingly unique riffing style. But Destruction somehow takes that steak and sizzles it nice and good… but it comes out lukewarm. It absolutely speaks wonders for the quality of the big three songs on here that they can overcome these difficulties, but the lesser qualities of the other songs sadly shine on through due to these issues.Ī lot of bands give you the steak, but no sizzle – and that’s if they don’t waterboard it with tomato sauce. Schmier traded in his harsher vocals for something closer to a wetter Dave Mustaine-styled sneer that slithers through these riffs with no real power, venom, evil or anything behind them. As much as fixing the former with either a bit more sharpness or bass could give the songs some extra kick, the latter is one that ultimately does them in. None of which are helped by the flat production nor the vocals. Placing “Bestial Invasion” and “Thrash Attack” in the middle stops this album from becoming a perpetual downhill jam. ![]() ![]() The track ordering – boy, that is one comfy cushion to lessen the blow with. These songs tend to run together – or they would if they all played one after the other. A riff can sweep you off your feet with virtuosic precision, but find itself getting knocked down itself by dragging or repeatedly using about the same technique it knocked you down with before. Others, sadly, never get that far off the ground. Some, like “Death Trap”, stop the fairly middling thrashing at just the right time to keep it from becoming completely monotonous as they bust out a quick breakdown before Mike shreds some mad solos like a crazy cunt. Granted, there’s a variable amount of bite to the songs. The problem is that they come across less crawling and more plodding. They do come across rather ambitiously with a slightly more progressive veneer – aiming more for growing melodicism with their crawling, technical riffing. Mike riffs like a man possessed and his solos soar like the eagle in The Rescuers Down Under, but that’s about where the positives begin and end. there’s a good reason that those three tracks are the ones best remembered from this album a good reason why it is that they’re the ones on Live Without Sense and not the rest. These tracks stand tall as some of the finest the subgenre has to offer and definitely helped Destruction become something of a household name, even if a relatively more underground one compared to their contemporaries.īut I have to be real with you guys. The instrumental “Thrash Attack” does particularly well to showcase Mike’s riffing prowess, building up from a crawling passage of riffs to a… well, thrash attack. That being said, the riffs themselves stay grounded in a more thrash-like setting. It’s these properties that really give the songs more lift than you’d expect, even 36 years removed from its release. Said riffing leans a little more towards 80s power/speed metal tropes like a quicker but still more overtly melodic structure and more soaring solos than your typical thrash riffs. The former two joints are veritable thrash classics with some genuinely face-melting riffing. What makes Infernal Overkill pop after all these years is the triple triad of “Invincible Force”, “Bestial Invasion” and “Thrash Attack”. Infernal Overkill is like this more technical take on it that half nails it and half… has an interesting approach that it doesn’t quite nail. I mean, their prior EP, Sentence of Death, certainly had a more Bay Area sound to it, albeit harder hitting and yet with a strangely trad/NWOBHM influence to it – it’s actually quite unmistakable how much it soared, with Schmier providing ample contrast via those pounding harsher vocals. Where Sodom started off as a Venom/Hellhammer-styled thrash band and Kreator wanted to push sonic boundaries, Destruction were more about these precision-strike riffs and warped takes on a more American sound. Out of the Teutonic three, Destruction is definitely the odd duck.
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