Indestroy - Indestroy (1987)^{Release ID: 18353}

Maryland four-piece thrashers Indestroy first formed under the moniker of Fatal Sin in 1983 before renaming themselves three years later. Their musical career would be a relatively short one with just 1987’s self-titled full-length & 1989’s “Senseless Theories” E.P. seeing the light of day before they’d call it quits in 1990, just in the nick of time with the grunge movement about to throw a big cat amongst the thrash metal pigeons. My only personal exposure to Indestroy came through the self-titled album several decades ago now but it clearly didn’t make a huge impression on me as I don’t believe I ever entertained the idea of tracking down the E.P. afterwards. 

Indestroy’s debut was released through New Renaissance Records in 1987; a very busy extreme metal label that would also release records from bands like At War, Wehrmacht, Dream Death, Necrophagia & Blood Feast within just a two year period. New Renaissance was a fairly low budget venture though & inferior production jobs were par for the course so you shouldn’t go into “Indestroy” expecting a bright & vibrant sounding album. On the contrary, the sound production would be the most disappointing element of the record with the rhythm guitars being too low in the mix & a noticeable lack of high end throughout. Jeff Parsons’ bass guitar sounds nice & full but the riffs aren’t given the chance to fully showcase their wares which limits the appeal of an album that’s really been built around them. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised though given New Renaissance’s track record & the fairly minimal level of experience of producer Chris Kozlowski who hadn’t produced a metal release of any note at that stage as far as I’m aware. It’s actually pretty hard not to let this element of the album dictate the scope of its scoring potential to be honest & I think that there’s a definite possibility that I might have reached for a more favourable rating had the sound quality been decent. 

From a technical point of view, Indestroy were more than capable musicians & composers. In fact, the riffs possess a level of sophistication & complexity that wasn’t often seen in extreme metal at the time & it was clear that the band knew what they were doing. There’s certainly a looseness to the performances but it’s nothing that wouldn’t have been ironed out by a decent producer & production budget. Surprisingly for a low-profile debut like this, the guitar solos of Drew “Blood” Adrian are actually really shredding & show him to be a more than capable guitar hero. I actually find the lead work to be the highlight of the album as it adds some excitement to a set of songs that had great potential but are held back by the sluggish production. Rhythm guitarist Mark Strassburg’s vocals are the other career limiter though. His delivery is inconsistent & he doesn’t sit well in the mix on some tracks. During his better moments he sounds quite similar to Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine but at other times he sounds a little immature to my ears & I think Indestroy may have been better served by a dedicated front man. 

Musically, Indestroy cover several subgenres across the tracklisting. The basis for their sound is built on US thrash metal with Nuclear Assault, early Exodus & particularly “Killing Is My Business… & Business Is Good!”-era Megadeth seeming to be the primary sources of inspiration behind tracks like “The Gate”, “Fatal Sin”, “Brain Damaged” & “Shadowlord”. During their shorter & more aggressive numbers like “U.S.S.A.”, “Dead Girls (Don’t Say No)” & “Dismembered” however, the band sounds a little closer to speed metal with a bit less complexity to the riffage. Then there are slower & less intense tracks like “Ground Zero”, “Justice Sucks” & “A.I.M.L.E.S.S.” which take a more measured & traditional heavy metal approach so the album certainly isn’t lacking in the variety department. I find that the bassy production & general ambition in some of the song-writing often reminds me of Danish heavy metal masters Mercyful Fate which is quite a compliment but the most obvious influence is clearly early Megadeth who also sported an impressive level of complexity for the time. Album highlight “Fatal Sin” is a obvious example of this as it’s clearly trying to emulate the class & prowess of Mr. Mustaine & his cronies. 

Overall, I find Indestroy’s debut to be a frustrating experience. I mean there’s enough evidence presented here to suggest that there’s a more than decent album hiding in there somewhere. All that was needed was an experienced metal producer to draw it out. As it stands though, I don’t think I’ll be returning to “Indestroy” any time soon as (despite the best efforts of the instrumentalists) the product just sounds inferior. The B side also sees the quality of the song-writing fading noticeably which leaves me feeling a bit flat afterwards. It’s hard to overcome that feeling by remembering the stronger first half after sitting through the last four tracks which are all pretty lackluster. You get the feeling that the next release from the band could have been really good though as the groundwork had been completed here & all that’s required are a few tweaks so perhaps it might be worth checking out the subsequent E.P. to see if that ended up being the case. 

For fans of: Nuclear Assault, Exodus, early Megadeth