Destruction
Infernal Overkill

..and so it was that, in the second half of 1984, the fate of the European metal scene fell into the hands of a bunch of boozy long-haired guys, lacking particular familiarity with the "tools of the trade," yet rowdy and eager enough. And since they were all Germans, and since there were three groups these young guys banded into, people soon began to refer to them with the epithet of the "German Triad": Sodom, Kreator, and, indeed, Destruction.

"Infernal Overkill" ('85) is the first full-length from the band led by the lilliputian Mike Sifringer (guitar), only a few months subsequent to that bolt from the blue that was the band's recording debut: the EP "Sentence Of Death" from 1984, in practice (along with Sodom's "In The Sign Of Evil"), the baptism of fire for the entire German thrash scene. The debut of Sifringer and company was a real bolt from the blue: crude, imperfect, but of a devastating power, it ended up representing the possibility for the local metal scene to provide a valid alternative to the overseas cauldron that the debuts of Slayer and Metallica had uncovered the year before. Thrash, that of Destruction, free from NWOBHM reminiscences, technically amateurish, fast, and generally devoid of melodic concessions, was destined, however, to become the epitome of the entire German metal scene.

In the few months that separate the two releases, the group imperceptibly evolves their technical baggage, with particular regard to the guitar aspect: while remaining tied to an extremely aggressive and not at all refined riffing, the young Sifringer shows evident signs of growth in the compositional phase (overlooking, of course, the half plagiarism "Invincible Force"-"Sepulchral Voice"), trying to make his own solutions evidently indebted to the typical Slayer sound (the sulfurous instrumental "Thrash Attack") and, above all, offering the listener solo work that may not be technically avant-garde, but far from the casinar style mannerisms (which, instead, will be prominently displayed in the productions of the other two vertices of the German triangle) and, indeed, pleasantly linked to more traditionally heavy sounds (most notably the solo in "The Ritual"). The vocal aspect, on the other hand, does not change an iota: Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer (bass and, indeed, vocals) once again wallows in his rotten and hoarse singing, in his first-grade English ("Blekk Desss..") and in his hydrogen bomb hairstyle; likewise, behind the drums, Tommy Sandmann confirms the saying: "If you are bad at playing the drums, four more months of rehearsal won't be enough to turn you into Art Blakey".

In short, there is some improvement in the compositional phase, as well as a thinly veiled attempt to make their musical offering richer and more interesting. Yet the experiment, especially when listened to today, cannot be said to be fully successful. In some passages, the record undoubtedly suffers from a certain "tiredness": if the initial tracks "Invincible Force" and "Death Trap" are manna for any metalhead looking to bang their heads, if "Bestial Invasion" will eventually become somewhat the group's anthem, systematically proposed at the close of their live shows, well.. perhaps the seven-plus minutes of "Black Death" are really a bit too much, and perhaps the staggered timing of "Antichrist" ends up not being as engaging as the trio hoped. On many occasions, one almost gets the impression that a few more riffs and greater attention in the arranging phase would not have hurt, the whole record suffers from excessive compactness and homogeneity. If this is added to a production even inferior to the debut, perhaps we cannot speak of a misstep, but definitely of a missed masterpiece.

Of the three vertices of the Triad, the Lorrach group will prove to be the one with the most substantial problems not only with barbers but even more with updating their sound. As is known, with the dawn of the '90s, the entire world thrash scene underwent a sudden (but perhaps predictable) setback. The entire genre found itself practically having said everything it had to say, and many groups that had founded their sound on a limited package of stylistic features and musical solutions found themselves unable to modernize their offering, gradually losing public interest and record company funding. Precisely Sodom and Kreator were among the few able to ferry, more or less decently, their studded carcasses to the threshold of the new millennium: the former thanks to the charisma of leader Tom Angelripper (to this day a Bavarian institution for young and old), the latter by rewriting their sound and reinventing their image.

For Destruction, on the other hand, the '90s represented a decade of oblivion and recording humiliations, and only with the dawn of the new millennium and the return to the lineup (after a long exile) of frontman Schmier did the trio manage to convincingly return to the scene.