2007-12-27
Destructor were an up-and-coming thrash/speed metal from Cleveland USA when in 1988 they broke-up following the tragic murder of their bassist - Dave "Holocaust" Iannicca. At the same year, I started listening to heavy metal, I started out with cassettes by such greats as Metal Church's Blessing In Disguise and Nuclear Assault's Survive, and thrash and speed metal were my two favorite genres in metal, sadly – I only heard of Destructor a few years later.
I actually found a recording of their 1985 debut album – Maximum Destruction that a friend of mine made from an LP owned by another friend, and immediately fell in love with it – strong, raw metal that only a true mid-80's American metal band could produce.
Destructor finally re-emerged in 2003 with Sonic Bullet, and later with 2007's Storm Of Steel, both of which I just couldn’t get my greedy little hands on. Finally, come 2008, the band's label sent me their new full-length release – Forever In Leather.
What can I say? A lot of bands that broke up in the early 90's and later 80's are making a comeback these days, but sadly very few of them make a comeback as strong as this. This is the same kind of fast, furious, ass-kicking metal that got me into this music in the first place.
From the frantic opener – Tear Down The Heavens the band just doesn’t slow-down, 80's style speed metal with tight, aggressive playing, a fantastic, meaty sound and one of the strongest vocalists active today. Dave "Overkill" Just doesn’t just scream, the guy has the pipes to actually carry a melody perfectly, and it's the combination of his voice with the band's unrelenting metal attack that bring this to a truly unique level of quality.
What else? Well, guitar leads, plenty of them, crushing drumming with a snare that can drill through ice, and catchy choruses that will have you humming them in no-time.
There's also a good amount of variation here, from 80's heavy metal such as the opener to more old-school oriented thrash such as Skull Splitter and Unleashed, to more power-metal oriented cuts such as the excellent Precision Devastation. These guys ran the gamut of classic 80's metal and perform admirably in all fronts.
Let's sum this up, this is the kind of metal I wait for, this is the kind of metal that made me the metalhead I am today, if you have any sense, pick this album up.
Alon Miasnikov
