Destruction Album: “Thrash Anthems”

This is what I wish all metal bands from the eighties that had terrible recordings would do today! Destruction did a compilation of all of their old 80s material & made it not only sound clean & crisp by today's production standards, but HEAVY HEAVY HEAVY as hell!!! If you seriously thought they sounded heavy then, just pop this baby in your CD player & REALLY get your brain mangled! It doesn't even matter if all of your old favorites aren't on this CD, it's THAT GOOD! Buy this, thrash fans!!

I spent the first part of last night listening to "Thrash Anthems", a CD from one of my favorite thrash bands from the 80's, Destruction. I spent the rest of the night scraping my brains off the walls with a spatula! It's that good. Don't get me wrong, I loved the raw, evil sound of their first 3 albums but this CD will make your head explode and leave you huddled in the corner convulsing, weeping, and ashamed that you thought you knew what Thrash was all about. Well now you know! The re-recorded songs have a life of their own and that life is angry, evil, and will curb-stomp your head. What I don't understand is why a few people have given this CD a poor review because they think it sounds too much like the nu-metal garbage of today, HUH? Have you listened to today's metal? Destruction just changed nu-metal's diaper and filled their baby bottles with warm milk AND PURE EVIL! So what if they spent some good money on sound production for this CD, have you listened to any of thier older CDs latley? They are great but they sound like they were recorded with one mic setup in someone's bathroom. Someone said that the charm of the original songs are lost in this new recording. I'm here to tell you that Destruction is not here to charm you, they are here to crush your skull and leave your smoking corpse lying in a ditch. That is exactly what this CD does. There is nothing charming about listening to an old recording from back before they invented bass as there appears to be a total lack of it in their first 3 albums. That is all.

Ive been a Destruction fan since the beginning. Yes this is a re recording of many of their classic songs, (the new songs are also killer) Yes the originals are classics and for many fans the old recordings fit a niche that cannot be replaced, however I dont understand some of the negative comments about re recording them. If it wasnt for modern production and the digital age most modern metal bands (any genre actually) would fall right on their face. Bringing these "classic" into the modern age is just further proof of what killer songs they were in the first place, they stand toe to toe with whatever thrash band you wanna name....the big 4..whoever.., not to mention these guys absoulutely crush all the so called metal of the post 80s age. Mike is a severely underrated thrash metal hero, and Schmier can write with the best of them. This album rips, it is the definition of thrash and belongs in any real thrash fans collection.

Yes, Destruction re-recorded some of their older songs. Yes, the production is better, and their new drummer is better. Sorry, it doesn't help. Schmier now sings all down and dirty, bypassing the maniacal shriek he used to deliver. The band now sounds all new-school, and they just sort of lost me...got to give this one a thumbs down. It just sounds like a modern metal band covering old Destruction songs. The charm and identity of the original songs are gone. I used to marvel at how the guitarist was able to play so tightly alongside the old shambling drummer. Not a problem anymore, they now have a rock-solid kit basher in the band. Oddly, that doesn't influence me in a positive way. I think this lineup of Destruction should record new material, not overhaul their classics. Upon hearing this CD and their new style, I didn't even go to their show. This listener recommends that you seek out the original "Sentence of Death" and "Infernal Overkill" albums instead.