Artist: Destruction
Title: The Curse Of The Antichrist – Live In Agony
Type: Double live album
Label: AFM Records

Once upon a time I was known to put way too much effort into collecting bootleg CD’s of a band that shall remain anonymous. As I grew older and more cynical, I realised that outside the “mine’s bigger than yours…” smug collector mentality, these recordings were hardly worth the value of a CDR. The recording quality was often shoddy, bordering on unlistenable, and why waste an hour or so of your life with that when you can just whack on Master Of Puppets (oh, well that gave it away!) and crank it up to 11? This attitude crosses over to the official live album as well; sure the quality is that little bit better in most cases, but no matter how good an engineer you have, it can not compete with the studio and the essence of the live experience simply can’t be captured on record. Let’s face it; a living room is a living room no matter how many times you hear the words “Hello Wacken, how are you doing?” and you can form a circle pit with your mates, but when you crash into the sofa, you’ll soon come crashing back to reality and realise it’s just not the same (and if you don’t, you must be on drugs!)

There are exceptions, of course and I’m partial to a live album if it offers something unique or different. This album sees the Teutonic thrash trio celebrate their 25-year anniversary, and over 25 years I have to say there has been some change in their sound. Early albums like Eternal Ban and Mad Butcher contained some amazing songs although the rough recording quality and raw sound doesn’t suit everyone; in that respect the modernised best of, Thrash Anthems, was a great way of the band bringing those songs up to date, representing the band as they are now. Being that I am so fond of the early stuff, I never exactly rushed out to buy Thrash Anthems. Don’t get me wrong, I like the newer Destruction sound on albums like ‘The Antichrist’ and ‘Devolution;’ crisp and punishingly heavy without sacrificing their sound, and equally I enjoy what that does to the old songs when I hear them played live. So this live album provides the opportunity to enjoy that heavier modern sound without tarring the memory of the original recordings.

Destruction are one of the most reliable bands around; when it comes to live shows they never disappoint. There is that level of perfection to the playing that comes across and together with the excellent production job, makes this a fairly easy listening experience. That said, there is that general live feel to this; energetic to the point there are literally sparks flying and all sounds rather spontaneous. Wasting no time with niceties, Schmier starts things off with a shout of “Fuck you!” before charging straight in with a loud, proud rendition of ‘The Butcher Strikes Back’ which packs one hell of a blow. The butcher sure chopped up and served some of his meatiest offerings here too; a selection of old and new. Classics such as ‘Eternal Ban’ come charging out of the speakers, and there is ‘Life Without Sense’ which is delivered with a hell of a crunch. Of course there is Schmier’s trademark indomitable yell which sounds especially formidable on ‘Curse The Gods’ while the guitars thrash and scythe with relentless precision beside the hammering drums which hurtle ahead at 100mph.

This double disc CD will have you in a full on headbanging frenzy from start to finish. The album was recorded (as we are reminded throughout) at two concerts; one at Wacken Open Air and one much further afield; “When we were young, we were listening to Unleashed In The East” the frontman reminisces, “And now we’re in fucking TOKYO!” Wacken, on the other hand, is said to be ‘the metal event of the year’ right before Bobby Blitz (Overkill) Peewee Herman (Rage) and Oddlief Stensland (Communic) are introduced as guest vocalists on ‘The Alliance Of Hellhounds.’ ‘Thrash Till Death’ is the only number repeated; the second version which breaks into the opening theme from Psycho. This offers good value for money and is recommended both for fans of the band and for those looking for a good starting point.

http://www.destruction.de/
http://www.myspace.com/officialdestruction

Luci Herbert

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