Destruction
Release from Agony (1988)
Profile Records
Rating: 3.25 Pentagrams out of 4
Reviewed by: Jeff Deth
Next to the United States, an argument could easily be made that Germany gave us some of the best thrash bands of all time. Certainly in terms of influence, German bands like Kreator, Sodom and Destruction paved the way for the next generation of extreme death and black metal genres. During the mid to late eighties Destruction was amongst the most extreme metal bands in their brutal speed thrashing attack. They made no bones about how metal they were. They literally covered themselves in bullet belts, spikes and leather. They’re almost the perfect thrash band. They don’t have songs that epitomize thrash or that could be considered essential but they are consistently very good.
Germany had already made significant contributions to the metal scene prior to thrash but it seems that they truly had a deep connection to this violent, disillusioned and satanic offspring of punk and metal fusion. How from Lörrach, they synthesized all that was emerging in the tiny clubs of the Bay Area amazes me. More so, in relation to Slayer or Exodus. I can’t relate them in many ways to Metallica. Destruction is on the darker fringe. Flirting with Satanic imagery and chaotic horrors of the world and of the mind.
Release from Agony was the bands third full length LP from 1988. It contains everything great about this band. Blazing solo after solo matched by a charging rhythm section and the high-pitched shrieks of Bassist/ vocalist Schmier. Listen to any Black Metal song and you will hear the influence Schimer had as they seem to mimic him all the way. The way he used his voice at the time was something really unique. With the addition of a second guitarist, the solos are as frequent as they are incredible.
Each song delves into some dark and distorted facet of existence. Death, depression, political corruption, war. These are the things in life a band calling themselves Destruction can appreciate. Yes, their worldview is pretty bleak but they express it with such intensity and speed that it gleefully catapults you straight into the fiery abyss. I’m totally blown away by the technical precision of each song. I listened to the whole album three times in a row just to take it all in. This is a great record all the way through. A perfect reflection of the German movement of thrash metal that spawned countless other bands but of which Destruction stands the tallest.
Dark Angel
Time Does Not Heal (1991)
Combat Records
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 4 Pentagrams
Reviewed by: Jeff Deth
Dark Angel is one of those bands that appear very mysterious to me. There’s not much press on them. All their albums are hard to find or over-priced. I don’t know if the records went out of print or what. I’ve never seen an official video or interview footage. I recently found some concert clips on You Tube for the 1st time just to see what they looked like playing together. For as good of a band as Dark Angel was, they kept a level of intrigue around them that most other bands haven’t.
Taking a look at the cover of this record the logo is one of the absolute best of its kind. It clearly depicts the dark and sinister nature of extreme metal. It’s overbearing in its evilness. It basically says everything you need to know about the band from their sound to their content. With such a powerful mark, the level of expectation was high.
If you were to pick up an earlier album like Darkness Descends you would get nothing short of an ear bleeding pummeling of record-setting speed and ferocity. Time Does Not Heal is the final Dark Angel record and it documents the band expanding its thrashing assault into more progressive territory. There’s plenty of brutality and adrenaline being kicked up to be sure but there’s also a level of musicianship and technicality that is apparent as well. The song structures here allow for a tempo in which you can really appreciate the dynamics of the guitar work. This album also stands out due to vocalist Ron Rinehart’s more classical approach as opposed to the low-pitched growl that became the standard delivery. Rinehart adds a lot of emotion and character to the songs, becoming an instrument himself.
The mood never varies from being totally ominous and bleak. Gene Hoglan, aside from being a blindingly fast drummer penned almost all the lyrics. There’s not a moment of upliftment in songs like “Trauma and Catharsis” or “Pains Invention, Madness.” This album locks you down into a scene reflective of the dark and menacing ally photo on the album cover. Pain and deceit is everywhere and you have only yourself to count on. There are the songs that speak out against religion but there’s also a song against rape. A look at the lyric sheet will show a thinking man’s approach to metal, long expansive forays into deep subject matter.
So while there’s little known about individual members of the band, quite a bit can be gleamed about their beliefs from their music alone. This is a serious thrash band that plays over the heads of the cursory listener. But it’s their heaviness that puts them on the same playing field as any one of the “Big Four” of the classic thrash-era.
Pieces (1981)
Directed By: Jaun Piquer Simon
Reviewed By: Jeff Deth
Rating: 2.5 out of 4 Pentagrams
Are you looking for a slasher film that lives up to the expectations set by the genre?
This is a movie that can’t help from falling into every stereotype imaginable but still manages to be thoroughly entertaining. Unashamedly following in the bloody footprints of Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Pieces does it’s best to arm it’s killer with weapons that have proven their capabilities in shocking audiences. We have chainsaw and butcher knife. Add to that a cast of college girls running around topless before they hit the blade and you have an all-American slasher.
This film doesn’t disappoint when it comes to fully revealed kills full of gore and brutality. Bodies sawn in half, knife plunges straight through the head, decapitation. After all, the film’s plot is that a killer is on a mission to collect body parts and assemble them together like a human-jigsaw puzzle. Which he does in fact succeed in by films end. What happens until then is mostly arbitrary.
To be critical, there’s not one decent actor on set or in fact one actor who does not utterly embarrass themselves in their attempts to act. The script has it’s basic premise of a young boy who kills the shit out of his mother back in 1942 for insisting that he not play with puzzles of naked women. The boy fakes out the police by hiding in the closet as if he had escaped the killer’s wrath. Thus the crime goes unsolved and the psycho murderer boy goes free. We bounce into the 80’s onto a Boston college campus where the string of limb severing murders kick off.
As to be expected the main characters are the investigators picking up on the killer’s trail piece by piece. They are aided by a goofy-looking student whom they allow to play an integral part in the investigation, as would any professional. Then we have the astute Dean and the backwoods maintenance man.
In between the sex and bad hair, there’s a bunch totally left field scenes and dialogue, which give this movie quite a bizarre charm. Due to the general weirdness and nonsensical logic, Pieces distances itself from the respectable classics of the horror genre. But in so doing it gives itself a flavor of fun that makes this a great view with friends. That being said it also distances itself from something like Texas Chainsaw in it’s X-rated assault of mutilation. Director Jaun Piquer Simon doesn’t leave much to your imagination when it comes to sex or violence. This is a movie that is as it was touted back in the day “exactly what you think it is.”
And for everything that is predictable about this film, they tag on a final scene nothing can prepare you for.
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