Destruction - the 80s black/thrash/speed metal gods. It seems only appropriate to write up reviews for their seminal early works (considering just how many bands these days blatantly "borrow" their sound), so here we continue with 1986's "Eternal Devastation" and 1987's "Mad Butcher".

The "Mad Butcher" EP begins (predictably enough) with the title track itself - a reworking of a song that originally appeared on Destruction's debut, "Sentence Of Death" (in a much better form I might add). The version here is far too clean/polished (as is this entire EP), and lacks the raw vicious fury of the early version...they also ruin this fine track by tacking on two things not found on the original : a really blatant Iron Maiden melody line ripp-off/parody, and an excruciatingly tacky outro (complete with a short rendition of the "Pink Panther" theme)....NOT a good way to start the EP off. Next up is a cover of an old Plasmatics song, "The Damned". I was never a fan of The Plasmatics, so I don't quite understand their appeal (Wendy O William's breasts perhaps?), but as far as this type of thing goes, Destruction do a half decent job of it - the original was fairly "metal" to begin with, so it translates well. The third track, "Reject Emotions" shows some musical growth for Destruction, and comes off as fairly Metallica (circa Master Of Puppets) influenced. Closing off this release we have "The Last Judgement", a short little instrumental - normally I don't particularly care for instrumental tracks, and this track does nothing to change my opinion on them. Imagine Destruction playing a beefed up Pink Floyd song with a heap of Malmsteen guitar wanking, and you've got this song. Overall, a fairly disappointing CD...but compared to the material Destruction recorded AFTER it (the abysmal "Release From Agony"), this comes off as their last "decent" release.

Now to deal with "Eternal Devastation"...firstly, I'll admit that when this was originally released, I HATED the album - due mostly to it's irritating guitar sound. Yes, it's still razor sharp, but it's almost TOO sharp - there's no bottom end or sustain on it at all, and as I was a huge fan of bottom heavy metal (that's what you get when you're whelped on Venom, Bathory and Celtic Frost/Hellhammer (not to mention Black Sabbath) albums), I found the guitar to be unpalettable...but at the urging of a few friends, I gave this album another shot a couple of years ago, and well, it fared much better this time around.

The first track "Curse The Gods" is a great traditional Destruction speed/thrash track and also one of my favorite off the album - it's not that disimilar to the material found on "Infernal Overkill", although much more technical. "Confound Games" follows and continues along the same lines, but I personally found it uninteresting (a little too uninspired sounding). "Life Without Sense" is up next, and it's a killer track - built around a slower, evil sounding plod and a mid-paced chorus, this track could have benefitted immensly from a beefed up sound, but even with the production here, it's a classic. Fourth track is "United By Hatred", which after a somewhat retarded 19 second guitar wank intro, kicks in proper - once again a slower "evil" plod tempo is used first, and then a sped up section follows (which reminds me of "Bestial Invasion" in feel for some reason) - great stuff that once again beckons back to their first two releases. "Eternal Ban" follows, and starts off sounding like another "filler" tracks until it redeems itself 1:10 into the song with a great "crunch" rythmn (which pops up again 2:18 into the song). "Upcoming Devastation" is the 6th track on offer, an instrumental - once again, not my bag, although it's somewhat more tasteful than "The Last Judgement" from the "Mad Butcher" EP. Lastly, we have "Confused Mind" - after a short little 1 minute guitar ditty (shades of Pink Floyd once again, but this time with a more medieval feel), the track begins - nothing remarkable, but nothing horrid either...at least the vocal performance comes off as genuine (Schmier, when he gives it his all, is a great vocalist)...

So there you have it. "Eternal Devastation", for all it's faults, is still a great album, and more than makes up for the short comings of the "Mad Butcher" EP (of course, for those of you with no interest at in said EP, there's a recently released "remastered" version of "Eternal Devastation" out there on some french label, complete with a much nicer booklet/insert). I'd recommend picking up the first two Destruction releases before this one, but all said and done, this would also be a worthwhile purchase...

© 1999 chorazaim