Destruction: Mad Butchers For Life
For the ever-growing tree of extreme metal, thrash was the root. The blend of punkish aggression and speed with New Wave Of British Heavy Metal riffs and lead guitars took the world of heavy music by storm, spawning countless new sub-genres and offshoots. Though the American thrash scene is unarguably the most prolific, something darker was brewing across the pond. While the American scene, led by the Big Four of METALLICA, SLAYER, MEGADETH and ANTHRAX was ever under the spotlight of drama and rivalries, Germany’s Unholy Trinity of KREATOR, SODOM and DESTRUCTION enjoyed a more united, if less lucrative, relationship.
“There was always a good unity. We met each other really early in ’83 for the first time, SODOM, DESTRUCTION, IRON ANGEL, TANKARD, later on TORMENTOR that became KREATOR. We all met each other early and became friends.” Reflects Schmier, founding member and iconic front man of DESTRUCTION, on the early days of the German thrash scene and the unity between the bands. “I remember there was a little rivalry going on between SODOM and KREATOR because they’re both from the same kind of area in Germany. Essen and Gelsenkirchen, those two cities are close to each other so there was always a little competition between those guys, but it was never in a bad way, it was always like brothers.”
It’s been a long time since those early days of Teutonic Thrash, but the unity remains. Now DESTRUCTION are building up to the release of their 14th full length album Born To Perish – 16th if you count their re-recorded compilations Thrash Anthems I & II. Though the band are planning an intense touring cycle in support of the new album, Schmier has another, bigger tour on his mind.
“I hope we all can do this tour in the near future with a SODOM, KREATOR, and TANKARD: the German Big Four tour.” Following the American Big Four shows in 2011, questions were raised of whether the German outfits would do something similar in a celebration of their unity over the past three – now almost four – decades. “We definitely want to do something in 2020 together to kickstart the whole idea. Once the first shows are out there and kicking ass the rest will follow automatically pretty easily. For many years, it didn’t look so good, we didn’t talk much about it, everybody seemed to have their own interests only. But now everybody is ready to do it and very positive about it. I think it’s going to happen next year.”
In the here and now, however, the focus remains on Born To Perish. DESTRUCTION’s first album to be recorded as a four-piece in 20 years, it sees the addition of new shredder Damir Eskić and replacement drummer Randy Black to the DESTRUCTION family.
“The vibes are killer in the band. Damir, he’s a very positive guy, he’s always in good mood. He’s a great player, he’s a good team player… And of course, Randy, with all his experience and his tight playing, he enriched DESTRUCTION in a big way. The atmosphere in DESTRUCTION is better than ever, actually, we had a great time on the road already. We’ve already played many shows together now with this lineup, and it feels really comfy.”
The positive atmosphere in DESTRUCTION has clearly bled into Born To Perish. Not only is this some of the best material the band have released in years, but Schmier’s lyrics have taken a positive edge – though the positivity is subtle under the ever-present themes of darkness, war and corruption.
“The album is called Born To Perish, that’s what the whole lyrical concept is about. We’re writing about life and death and everything in between. At the end, we will all die at some point, the rich guy, the poor guy, any skin colour and any religion, we are all going to end in the same way, some earlier, some later. What you do with your life is up to you. That’s what I’m writing about.” Schmier begins, offering an insight into his frame of mind during the writing process for Born To Perish.
“It doesn’t matter if we go to a Muslim country to play, or what colour someone in the crowd’s skin is, when you’re at a metal show people unite right away, everyone is brothers and sisters. That’s something that the world is missing in a big way nowadays, because we’re dividing and we’re falling apart everywhere. That’s the influence for me for the lyrics, and trying to look at the world in a positive way, because there’s a lot of shit going on at the moment.”
Armed with their strongest album in years, the best atmosphere the band has had in years, and big plans for the future, its clear the Mad Butchers are back and stronger than ever. And though DESTRUCTION have been one of Germany’s premier thrash offerings for almost four decades now, there is a very real feeling and Schmier and co. are just getting started.
Born To Perish marks the first album in 20 years for DESTRUCTION to have two guitarists – did the addition of Damir Eskić allow you to be a bit more expansive in the song writing for the new album?
Schmier: It made stuff easier, because we didn’t hold back with ideas. When you write with the two guitars, everything is possible. There’s no handbrake. When we were writing before and recording, we were a three piece [so we felt] “We cannot do this, we cannot do that. Let’s not record this because we cannot reproduce it live.” But now, with two guitarists, we can compose with two guitars, we can add a lot of stuff, write more solos, and add a lot of little extras, little melodies to make the chorus better or add some harmonies in. It just makes it a little bit more catchy, a little more hard hitting. We really enjoyed that fact, there was no limits this time. Of course the new guy, Damir, he is an amazing solo player, he is an amazing shredder. He added his special kind of killing it on the solo parts. Mike [Sifringer] plays solos with him as well, we have a lot of those guitar duels where they’re both playing solos and stuff. When we started DESTRUCTION, the main influences were always the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and punk rock vibes. Often the aggression and ruthlessness came from punk, but the guitars always been metal influenced. Of course, we had to twin guitar attack in the 80s already so I know how it feels, and we had some very productive years in that time. Now the time was right to do this again, we just had to find the right guy.
Lyrically, what concepts did you want to explore with Born To Perish?
Schmier: We wanted to make an album that is more dark and hard hitting, but also catchier. Over the last few years we’ve found we have been trying too hard to be musicians sometimes, and we found that some of the songs didn’t work in the live situation as well as we thought they would. This time, I tried to take more care with song structures, and choruses, and also the way I sing and play bass. It’s an important part of the live set that I am comfortable with what I do. In the studio, I always record separately so sometimes you don’t know if the song will work live. This time we tried to write songs that would work in the live situation that are hard hitting, that are catchy enough for people understand them right away but also have a little finesse and little tricks and guitar twists to keep the album interesting.
The album is called Born To Perish, that’s what the whole lyrical concept is about. We’re writing about life and death and everything in between. At the end, we will all die at some point, the rich guy, the poor guy, any skin colour and any religion, we are all going to end in the same way, some earlier, some later. What you do with your life is up to you. That’s what I’m writing about. Of course, some stuff is political, stuff I experience when I’m on the road, we have the luck that we travel to so many countries and see so many different cultures. Nobody on this planet wants war, the politicians are want war for the industries, that’s the kind of thing I’m writing about.
Something I really see if that the metal community is one very big, united family. I wish the whole world was like that. It doesn’t matter if we go to a Muslim country to play, or what colour someone in the crowd’s skin is, when you’re at a metal show people unite right away, everyone is brothers and sisters. That’s something that the world is missing in a big way nowadays, because we’re dividing and we’re falling apart everywhere. That’s the influence for me for the lyrics, and trying to look at the world in a positive way, because there’s a lot of shit going on at the moment.
Back in the early ‘80s, DESTRUCTION were one of the trailblazers in the incredible German thrash scene. The American thrash scene was well known for both friendly and unfriendly rivalries in the early days – was that something reflected in the German scene as well, or was there a strongest sense of unity between the bands?
Schmier: Yeah there was always a good unity. We met each other really early in ’83 for the first time, SODOM, DESTRUCTION, IRON ANGEL, TANKARD, later on TORMENTOR that became KREATOR. We all met each other early and became friends. I remember there was a little rivalry going on between SODOM and KREATOR because they’re both from the same kind of area in Germany, they were basically neighbours. Essen and Gelsenkirchen, those two cities are close to each other so there was always a little competition between those guys, but it was never in a bad way, it was always like brothers. All that just kind of disappeared over the years, I think over last years we’ve been all happy for each other that we are still around and still going strong when we see each other, or have a beer together. There’s always been a good unity in the scene. I hope we all can do this tour in the near future with a SODOM, KREATOR, and TANKARD, the German Big Four tour. Everybody wants that tour, it’s going to happen sooner or later and we’re all talking about this topic again now.
So there is a discussion between DESTRUCTION, KREATOR, SODOM and TANKARD about Teutonic Big Four shows happening? Have you made any concrete plans you can speak about?
Schmier: We all want to do it, it’s just a matter of how to do it right. Everybody has different touring schedules and we’ve got to fit that into the plans. We definitely want to do something in 2020 together to kickstart the whole idea. Once the first shows are out there and kicking ass the rest will follow automatically pretty easily. We want to do bog shows around the world, just selected concerts as we all have other commitments and other stuff to do, but it’s going to happen. I’m very positive. For many years, it didn’t look so good, we didn’t talk much about it, everybody seemed to have their own interests only. But now everybody is ready to do it and very positive about it. I think it’s going to happen next year. And as soon as we have kickstarted the first shows, the rest will follow automatically. It always needs a first introduction, and that’s going to happen in 2020, the end of 2020 I think.
Though every band in the German thrash scene had its own style, there was a consistent sound running through much of the scene, with many bands opting for a more aggressive, more visceral brand of thrash than your American counterparts. Why do you think this was the case?
Schmier: Must be a lot of metal in the German water! Plenty of iron! [laughs] It’s actually quite funny because in the back in the day, there was no connection whatsoever between the bands at the beginning. The only thing we could get was Kerrang! magazine at the time, that was the only heavy metal magazine that existed in the Western world at the time, and we all got out information from Kerrang!. There was a mail order so we could order some overseas records, that’s how we got all of the music – and, of course, tape trading. The first time we heard the overseas bands, like SLAYER and METALLICA on the Metal Massacre sampler, we were just like “What the fuck, this is amazing!” [laughs]
Later on, we heard for the first time that also there were some German bands. We saw some fanzines, and they were talking about German bands playing extreme metal – SODOM, TANKARD, and later on TORMENTOR. I was very happy about it, and when I heard the first demos they were doing basically the same stuff as we were, even though we weren’t connected we created something similar. I remember before we recorded our first demo, the first SLAYER album came out [Show No Mercy, 1983] and it had two songs, one was called Tormentor and the other was called The Antichrist. We also had two songs called Antichrist and Tormentor that were on our demo in 1983. So we had a lot of similar ideas, even though we were spread around the world. We had the same influences, the same wild youth spirit, and I guess punk influences as well. It’s a phenomena somehow. Later on we all connected, and we influenced each other. When we met EXODUS, they were saying “The riff from that song was great and influenced us!” and we love that SLAYER song that inspired us and so on. But at the beginning, it wasn’t like that. Everybody just created something unique in the very early days, and nothing was connected. It was quite sensational I think.
In the beginning, we never thought we could do this professionally. Our biggest wish was recording an album one day, playing a stage one day. We did little steps to the beginning and we never thought we could go anywhere with this kind of music. It was a dream to play live. We never played in our region either until 1987. It took us basically four years or so to finally have a concert in our in our hometown. That’s how thin the metal scene was back in the day here.
Are there any bands or albums from that early German thrash scene that you feel more people should hold in the same regard as yourselves, KREATOR and SODOM?
Schmier: I think actually, it’s fascinating that the wider metal scene at large doesn’t remember stuff, it’s true, but a lot of bands that never really made it, especially second wave bands, are still remembered in many forums and fanzines. When I see this stuff on the internet, I’m surprised that people do still remember all those bands because some of them never had more than an independent release, or never had a big album coming out. A fantastic album from back in the day from Germany, ASSASSIN‘s Interstellar Experience is an amazing album that had a certain success. We were also good friends with the guys back in the day. ARTILLERY are also a totally underrated band from those days. They had some really good albums out and fantastic guitar work also for the time that wasn’t recognised by the mainstream. They started at the same time as us, basically, but they never really made it that far. Maybe because they are from Denmark and the Danish scene wasn’t as strong?
One of the very first German bands was ANGEL DUST, they were one of the first German speed metal bands but they also didn’t get as much recognition as other bands. Their first album [Into The Dark Past, 1986] was kind of a success in the underground, but then they changed their style. Actually, a lot of bands did that, EXUMER at the time and DEATH ROW kind of changed their style too much. Even POSSESSED, they were very successful with Seven Churches, but changed their style too much and people didn’t follow them as much. Even me, I still discover some stuff sometimes when I look through those Wikipedia pages and Metal Archives, I find bands that I still remember but almost forgot about. That’s the advantage of the internet, you can Google it or find it on YouTube. Actually, YouTube is pretty fascinating because they really have everything that is out there… well almost everything! Sometimes there’s stuff I don’t find when I go back further to the ’70s, not everything is documented, but but it’s quite surprising what you can find. Of course, it’s not not very good for the bands in terms of paying royalties, but it’s great in terms of keeping music alive and appreciating the roots of everything.
Born To Perish is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. DESTRUCTION are featured in our latest digital issue. Access it by subscribing to our Patreon!
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