DESTRUCTION – Day Of Reckoning
- Posted on 31-01-2011
These days the metal community appears to be much more open-minded when it comes to genre resurrection than ever before. In my early 1980’s youth, once pastures moved heavier, speedier, or more underground, it seemed you needed to maintain distance from your previous musical loves. How silly it was thinking back that you couldn’t appreciate Accept, Candlemass, Exodus, Unleashed and/or thousands of others at the same time? That’s why I feel the veteran acts still have plenty left to say in their respective styles – regardless of the ‘in’ movement circling the populace – due to their commitment and belief behind their music.
Destruction have been back on the scene for quite a while peddling their fine thrash wares. Over the past decade they’ve continually put their punishing riffs and aggression onto audiences the world over, and "Day Of Reckoning" won’t disappoint those familiar with the mad butcher philosophy. Bassist/singer Schmier shatters sonic barriers with his vengeful vocalizations on winning tracks like “Sheep Of The Regime”, “Hate Is My Fuel” and “Misfit”. New drummer Vaaver (Wawrzyniec Dramowicz) doesn’t diminish the impact left from previous kit master Marc Reign – his tempos and hitting power pure on tracks like “The Price” and the title cut. And the man laying down all the crazy guitar riffs and lead runs Mike Sifringer continues to teach the second generation of thrash musicians a thing or two about clarity and tone through all 11 tracks, be it mid-tempo with “Armageddonizer” or his normal speed inclination through “Church Of Disgust”.
Overall "Day Of Reckoning" returns Destruction to the form I heard on "All Hell Breaks Loose" ten years ago – relentless, determined and unyielding in their quest to deliver a top to bottom high quality album. A huge improvement over their last two studio efforts, maybe the longer layoff between records refueled the chemistry between the three musicians because I foresee "Day Of Reckoning" sustaining play list potential throughout this year and beyond.
Who says thrash is merely a young man’s game? Not I – and not Destruction either!