Review by Rexorcist for Destruction - Sentence of Death (1984)

I never hear anyone talk about the band Destruction these days, but they still get really good reviews.  I guess they're one of those bands you just check out if you like thrash history or have a soft spot for the Teutonic stuff.  Since I need to review one of their albums for the list challenges on Metal Academy, I started with their debut extended play, Sentence of Death.  The apocalyptic spoken intro was cheesy enough as I expect, but even though there's some pretty good riffage here, at this point, I've just heard so much thrash like this, even though this is the really early stuff.  Having been released about four months after Metallica's game-changing Ride the Lightning, this sounds pretty generic in comparison and many other thrash albums, even better ones, would sound just like this.  I suppose all the dark and thunderous sound effects are their attempt at a sense of art, which is fine, but I'd prefer if their riffs more greatly reflected that.  Now for early thrash, this relies on darkened screams, general speed, and decent riffs.  They go for a speed metal route that comes off a bit punkish, and can even be seen as a small factor in the early development of black metal.  But other than that, there's nothing here that Metallica, or even Venom, didn't do better.  It's obvious that writing was of least concern as long as they could be fast and edgy, and they kind of succeed at that.  But since it's only a debut EP, it';s obviously not the most well-produced thing on Earth.  These guys were obviously young and just wanted to rock the basics of a new world and grab a piece of that Metallica action.  Decent, but only really necessary if you're a thrash history buff.

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