It’s hard to believe – especially for some of us Of A Certain Age – that this year sees the fortieth anniversary of legendary German thrashers Destruction. Frontman Marcel “Schmier” Schirmer might be the last man standing from the band’s original line-up (co-founder and guitarist Mike Sifringer having left last year) but the band’s fifteenth full length studio album, Diabolical (Napalm Records) still manages to recapture that old fiery attitude.
With the band having acted as a trio, a quartet and a five piece at different points in their history, Destruction has now firmly settled back into being a four piece, retaining the services of drummer Randy Black and guitarist Damir Eskić – both present since 2019’s Born to Perish (Nuclear Blast) – with Argentinian guitarist Martin Furia completing the current line-up.
After the moody intro of ‘Under The Spell’ the band launch into the fast and furious title track with a typically barbed Destruction riff and a welcomingly familiar bestial scream from Schmier. The equally violent ‘No Faith In Humanity’ is all flailing riffs, gang vocals and pinch harmonics while ‘Repent Your Sins’ is driven by an insistent mid-placed gallop. ‘Hope Dies Last’ is a blur of intense savagery as Schmier attempts to sound even more unhinged than usual while ‘The Last Of A Dying Breed’ is classic sounding Germanic thrash featuring riffs that could have been written during the eighties.
‘State Of Apathy’ and ‘Tormented Soul’ will both crack brains and while you could be forgiven for thinking slowing down might be a viable option at this point, Schmier and co. clearly have other plans when ‘Servant of the Beast’ rips out one of the fastest riffs on the album. Iron Maiden influences creep into ‘The Lonely Wolf’ while ‘Ghost From The Past’ and ‘Whorefication’ are two more glorious examples of speed metal mayhem before the album closes with Destruction returning to their punk origins with a snappy version of ‘City Baby Attacked By Rats’ by Birmingham thrash metal influencers GBH.
If you require subtlety and nuance from your German thrash then I’m afraid you’re in entirely the wrong place as Destruction only have two speeds – fast and fastest – and on that front alone Diabolical does not disappoint, the band launching their latest thrash attack with uncompromising aggression and loving every minute of it.
7 / 10
GARY ALCOCK