DESTRUCTION "Born To Perish"

DESTRUCTION

“Born To Perish”

DESTRUCTION are one of the pillars of German thrash and enjoy an esteemed position in the metal world. However, their output has been highly variable in the last 15 years or so. On which side of the barbed wire fence does “Born To Perish” fall?

This record seems to have the necessary aggression but sounds extremely robotic and cookie cutter. There’s nothing that pushes the music to a different level. It has that canned Nuclear Blast sound, most especially prevalent in the artificial drumming, and everything is flattened out when it comes to production. Ferocious or clever material can overcome this handicap, but as angry as this is, it just doesn’t leap over that bar. Stuff like the title track, “Betrayal” and “Fatal Flight 17” is workman like DESTRUCTION thrash and no more.

I do like the retro-thrash sound of “Tyrants of the Netherworld” and “Rotten” but they are balanced by weak songs like “Butchered For Life” (not as violent as the title would indicate) and “Filthy Wealth”. So what we are left with is a kind of “placeholder” album for DESTRUCTION where they can say they released a thrash album and that’s about all. Not really an essential purchase.

NUCLEAR BLAST

DESTRUCTION