Destruction - D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. (Candlelight USA/2008)
German thrash metal legends unite once again to concoct this great release entitled D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. Every letter indicates the title of each song. After 25 years and arguably the first German thrash metal act, they continue to dominate. I could've rated the album higher than I will though because I didn't much care for the solos. Even though most of them were guest solos, I still couldn't get into them. They just didn't seem to fit with the guitar which was by their original guitarist Mike Sifringer. There were some decent guests but they didn't really catch me as much as the riffs did. The energy that this 3-piece act dishes out is still awesome. I enjoyed the intro acoustic guitar as well as all of the rest of this album. The music is thrash metal to the core. The rhythms show that Mike hasn't lost the edge from that aspect. The songs are filled with somewhat technical riffs which meshes well with Schmier's vocal output. The backing vocals are perfectly suited to fit well with the music.
Schmier remains to be my favorite thrash metal vocalist. The lyrics cover mostly topics such as anti-religion, politics, and metal (http://www.metal-archives.com/). The songwriting is to the point and the vocals are aggressive but the listener is still able to pretty much hear without reading the lyrics what Schmier is saying. Again in terms of how the rhythm guitar goes, I like the tone that is very heavy distortion. The riffs feature gallops, heavy power chords, and good backup riffs that accompany the solos. But like I said, the solos didn't really fit with the songs. I just didn't think that there was anything very special about them. Mike also needs to stick with the rhythm guitar only, no solos either! He just doesn't execute them very well even though most of them were again by guest guitarists.
Marc Reign their drummer did an awesome job on his end. At times, the tempos were fast and his efforts fit very well with Mike's rhythms. When there were double bass executions, the drums were very smooth and perfectly done. When the songs needed gallops, they were there. When there were faster tempos, Marc delivered very well. Originally, Destruction's first drummer Tommy Sandmann never seemed to be able to cut it. With Marc on board, they've finally found someone that does a great job. My favorite tracks are the opener "Devolution", "The Violation Of Morality", and "No One Shall Survive". But overall, all of the songs rule just some more so than others. One last point, the production by Destruction and Jacob Hansen were awesome. Each instrument/vocal outputs fit perfectly. Do yourself a favor and pick up this release ASAP. It won't disappoint if you're heavy into thrash metal!
Rating: 8/10.