Destruction – Diabolical

Genre: Thrash Metal
Country: Germany
Label: Napalm Records
Year: 2022

Destruction have nothing to prove to anyone. This is their 17^th studio album after all. Truth be told however in this album we can see two specific tangs. “Diabolical” is the first recording without Mike. A guy that was present from the very early beginnings of the band. He was there in the golden years, in the rise and fall and the resurrection of Destruction and the recognition. Thankfully the Germans were suspicious and knew that some would wait for a huge mistake in this new beginning in order to misjudge them. So they wrote a dozen of songs (plus one cover) that no one could say a single bad word about them! As simple as that…12 songs may seem to many for a lot of you but as they managed to create the necessary audio variety so as not to diminish the interest throughout the listening of the disc, I believe that there no reason to argue about how many songs the album features. There are the classic thrash dynamites where aggression prevails; there are the most technical songs, especially on guitars but also the compositions with a heavier orientation. I understand that Mike will be missed by many but this will happen mainly for emotional reasons. Musically, the band stands at a high level and “Diabolical” is the ossifying answer. Randy Black proves once again that he is an amazing drummer while Schmier is the heart and soul of the band. His passion for music overflows and this is something that is reflected in both recordings and live concerts. It is the driving force of Destruction and a huge personality for thrash metal. The second peculiarity of the album but not so important is that it is the first under the roof of Napalm Records. One would say that Destruction should prove to their new record label that they have made a good choice but I think that here the thing works vice versa. An extremely interesting work.