Destruction are a German Thrash Metal band. Having been active since 1983, they are one of the longest running and most famous, iconic and influential bands in the Teutonic thrash scene along with Kreator, Sodom and Tankard. Their wild, high energy style and at the end of The '80s adoption of more mechanically proficienct musicianship, much like their peers, proved influential on the development of Death Metal and to an extent Black Metal.
The band formed in 1982 as Knight of Demon, then made up of Ulf Kuhne (vocals), Michael "Mike" Sirfringer (guitar), Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer (bass) and Tommy Sandman (drums). When they formed they had more of traditional metal sound, they adopted a faster and more aggressive sound and changed their name in some weeks by 1983. The year after that, they fired Ulf, Schmier took over vocals as they performed as a trio and the band released the Sentence of Death EP, swiflty followed by three studio albums in the next three years (Infernal Overkill in 1985, Eternal Devastation in 1986 and Release from Agony in 1987), steadily polishing their sound and increasing their profile in the process. The most significant change after that was the firing of Schmier in 1989. He was replaced by Andre Grieder of Poltergeist for one album, Cracked Brain.
Most of the Cracked Brain lineup left after the cycle for that album was complete except for Mike and drummer Olly, who soldiered on with new members in 1993 and recorded what is now known as the "Neo-Destruction" era, consisting of two extended plays, Destruction and Them Not Me, and one full-length album, The Least Successful Human Cannonball.
After the catastrophe that era ended up being with fans and sales alike, Mike split up the Neo-Destruction lineup in 1999, made up with Schmier (who had spent The '90s in Headhunter, who had better fortune than Destruction did at the time but never replicated Destruction's heights in the 80's), recruited drummer Sven Vormann and recorded All Hell Breaks Loose, which returned to their classic sound. Their comeback was cemented with the next year's The Antichrist, and the band has been going strong since then. Though they had changed drummers a few times and expanded into a four piece in 2019, the real change came in mid-2021 when Mike (after having missed a few shows) left the band.
Discography
Original studio albums:
- Infernal Overkill (1985)
- Eternal Devastation (1986)
- Release from Agony (1987)
- Cracked Brain (1990)
- The Least Successful Cannonball (1998)
- All Hell Breaks Loose (2000)
- The Antichrist (2001)
- Metal Discharge (2003)
- Inventor of Evil (2005)
- D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. (2008)
- Day of Reckoning (2011)
- Spiritual Genocide (2012)
- Under Attack (2016)
- Born to Perish (2019)
- Diabolical (2022)
Other notable releases:
- Sentence of Death EP (1984) - Debut professional release, notable for having a more first wave of Black Metal-tinged sound than after. Has been packed together with Infernal Overkill from time to time.
- Mad Butcher EP (1987) - Contains a re-recording of the song from Sentence of Death and three more songs. Also notable for the debut of their Metal Band Mascot on the cover. Has been packaged together with Eternal Devastation from time to time.
- Destruction EP (1994) - Debut of "Neo-Destruction". Has long since been disowned.
- Them Not Me EP (1995) - Follow-up to the above, with similar treatment today.
- Thrash Anthems (2007) - Re-recording of their most popular songs from their first four albums, Sentence of Death and Mad Butcher, plus two new songs.
- Thrash Anthems II (2017) - Similar to the first one, though with less popular songs. Notable for being crowdfunded using PledgeMusic.
Members:
Current:
- Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer - bass (1983-1989, 1999-present), vocals (1984-1989, 1999-present)
- Randy Black - drums (2018-present)
- Damir Eskić - guitars (2019-present)
- Martin Furia - guitars (2021-present)
Past:
- Tommy "Tommy" Sandman - drums (1983-1986)
- "Ulf" Kühne - vocals (1983-1984)
- Michael "Mike" Sifringer - guitar (1983-2021)
- Oliver "Olly" Kaiser - drums (1987-1999)
- Harry Wilkens - guitar (1987-1990)
- André Grieder - vocals (1989-1990)
- Michael Piranio - guitars (1993-1998)
- Thomas Rosenmerkel - vocals (1993-1998)
- Christian Engler - bass (1994-1998)
- Seven Vormann - drums (1999-2001)
- Marc "Speedy" Reign - drums (2002-2010)
- Wawrzyniec "Vaaver" Dramowicz - drums (2010-2018)
Troping Invasion:
- Black Metal: Sentence of Death has prominent first wave elements due to its very raw production, Satanic lyrical content and Schmier's very high pitched vocals. Several members perform under Only One Name, a very common occurence in the later black metal scene (though Destruction members always just used only one of their names instead of stage names)
- Call-Back: "The Butcher Strikes Back" references several past Destruction songs and albums in its lyrics.
- The Cameo: Many past Destruction members make small appearances on their more modern releases.
- Canon Discontinuity: The "Neo-Destruction" from 1994 to 1998, which featured no Schmier and a drastically different sound.
- Cover Version: They've covered "My Sharona", "Killers", "Whiplash", "Black Metal", and "Holiday in Cambodia" among others.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: On the cover of Release from Agony, on hands.
- Face on the Cover: More often than with many other thrash bands, but Eternal Devastation most notably includes an illustration of their heads seemingly controlling a tornado.
- Heavy Meta:
- "The Butcher Strikes Back" is about the band's comeback (or at least Schmier's comeback, as he was fired in 1989, the song written in 1999, and the first words of "Curse the day ten years ago", their fans, and recovery from the dark times that were The '90s.
- "Thrash Till Death", essentially about how thrash will never die.
- I Am the Band: Schmier is the only founding member left, and indeed the only current member who had joined prior to 2018. For a long time they were a case of We Are the Band with Schmier and Mike, with 3 of the 4 releases with Mike but not Schmier being rendered Canon Discontinuity and the two being the only constant members and primary songwriters from 1999 up until mid-2021, when Mike left. Unlike Schmier, Mike had been with the band since its inception, so the band no longer has a single member around for their entire run.
- Inherited Illiteracy Title: "Total Desaster", referring to a particularly destructive disaster.
- Lead Bassist: Schmier, one of the two longest-running members of the band and far and away their most famous vocalist.
- Live Album: Several, but Live Without Sense is often hailed as one of the best in thrash.
- Metal Band Mascot: The Mad Butcher, a fat, bald, Ax-Crazy butcher. He got his own EP in 1987 after debuting on the song "Mad Butcher" on Sentence of Death, and he has appeared on many of their album covers since the reunion with Schmier.
- Multinational Team: The current lineup is German (Schmier), Canadian (Randy), Swiss (Damir), and Argentine-Belgian (Martin).
- New Sound Album:
- Release from Agony featured a big jump in technical songwriting than their earlier albums did and completely discarded the Speed Metal influence that they had up until then.
- Cracked Brain went even further into tech-thrash.
- Destruction, the first "Neo-Destruction" release, added Groove Metal and Alternative Metal elements that stuck for the rest of the era.
- All Hell Breaks Loose introduced the band's modern sound - back to straight-up thrash metal and less of a technical edge than Agony and Brain, which they're more or less stuck to since then.
- Only One Name: Mike and Schmier are credited almost exclusively with only his first name and a variant of his last name respectively. Less famously, the other two founding members (Ulf and Tommy), initially their second drummer Olly and Vaaver (though he, unlike they others, used a Stage Name).
- Religion Rant Song: Anti-religion is probably their most common lyrical theme. "Curse the Gods", about how religion has only led to death and suffering, is probably the most famous.
- The Remake: Thrash Anthems and its sequel, which are largely and exclusively respectively re-recordings of the band's material up through Cracked Brain with a big production beef-up. Particularly significant is that they include Schmier singing a few songs from Cracked Brain, an album he did not originally appear on.
- Rock Trio: Though they have tried different types of lineups (often four-pieces, which they have been since 2019 as of current) for much of their career they've been a three-piece with Schmier on vocals and bass, Mike on guitar, and a less consistent drummer spot, though they have had two drummers last for nine years each. One of the most famous examples in Thrash Metal along with their countrymen Sodom.
- Shout-Out: "Thrash Till Death" mentions Pleasure to Kill, Bonded by Blood, and Metal Revolution (probably a reference to Living Death, a considerably more obscure German thrash band).
- Speed Metal: Sentence of Death and Infernal Overkill are about an even mix of this and thrash, with Eternal Devastation still staying in this range before they abandoned speed metal influences from Release from Agony onward.
- Start My Own: Schmier started Headhunter when he was fired from Destruction, which has a lot more of a Power Metal inspired sound. They have largely been inactive since Schmier came back to Destruction, though they did tour and release one more album in the late 2000s.
- Trope Codifier: One of the three main ones for Teutonic thrash along with Kreator and Sodom, though often considered the most melodic (and by the end of the 80s, most technical) of the three. In addition to this, the band's material from around the Turn of the Millennium, especially The Antichrist, helped lay down the groundwork for thrash's fullscale revival a few years later.
