If there’s one thing that Teutonic thrashers Destruction enjoy, it’s a live album. The sixth of their career to date, Born to Thrash (Live in Germany) (Nuclear Blast Records) was recorded at Partysan Open Air, a metal festival held at Schlotheim’s Obermehler Airport during August last year, and catches the band in, ahem… full flight.

Such is Destruction’s steadfast loyalty to their older material during festival season, you can all but guess exactly what songs the band will perform without even looking at the track-listing, making Born to Thrash somewhat of a double-edged sword. With only last year’s ‘Betrayal’ and ‘Born to Perish’, plus ‘The Butcher Strikes Back’ from 2000 representing their newer material, you’ll have undoubtedly heard most of what is on offer many times before, so it will depend largely on how much you want to hear (the still obviously fantastic) ‘Mad Butcher’, ‘Nailed to the Cross’, and ‘Total Desaster’ for the hundred and eleventieth time.

That said, showstopping tunes like the ‘Curse the Gods’, Life Without Sense’ and ‘Bestial Devastation’ can never be heard enough times, and a beefy production combined with a typically heads down, full-throttle performance makes for one of the band’s better live recordings.

Back to playing as a four-piece, Destruction sound simply formidable. Imposing frontman Marcel “Schmier” Schirmer shouts, screams, roars, and yelps at the German crowd in his own inimitable style, while drummer Randy Black pounds his kit into dust and the twin guitars of mainstay Mike Sifringer, and another newbie Damir Eskic, sound like chainsaws slicing through bone.

Yes, the truth is you’ve heard it most of it before. But with songs of this quality being played with such vicious intent, surely one more time won’t hurt. Order it here!

7 / 10

GARY ALCOCK