Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Along with both Kreator and Sodom, Destruction would form the backbone of the newish Teutonic thrash metal movement, which certainly differed from its American counterpart in a number of aspects. Whereas the American sample was usually pure aggression with different variations, the German counterpart simply adopted a harsher element, overall showing that their brand of thrash was probably closer to what would become black metal. In fact Devastation on their debut album Infernal Overkill and their even earlier EP Sentence of Death were pretty close to a black metal sound, but for Eternal Devastation their best album they had moved away from these beginnings and firmly into thrash territory. Another interesting feature of these German thrash metal bands was the ‘trio element’ to their sound, where these three bands (Destruction, Kreator, Sodom) in this period only had three members in their line-ups. Of course trios were hardly anything new in rock, but in metal it was always a challenge given the need for most metal bands to bash out a potent sound. I’m guessing the influence of a band like Venom and the more technically superior Celtic Frost, may well have been vital influences with the ‘threesome concept’ here. Band frontman vocalist Marcel Schirmer ‘Schmier’ with his screeched vocals, certainly rivalled Mille Petrozza of Kreator and Tom Angelripper (great name) of Sodom at this time in defining the type of Teutonic vocalist that the listener should expect to hear. The striking feature of Eternal Devastation is that it’s an extremely tight and consistent album from beginning to end, with its opening brace of tracks “Curse the Gods” and “Confound Games” which both set the tone for most of the album with their insistent riffing that are prone to instant changes and progression. The sinister sounding vocal approach from Schmier is hard to ignore as he screeches his way through the album, all against the previously mentioned harsher backdrop of the Teutonic thrash metal sound with some interesting progressive elements in places. I particularly like the condensed sound of “Eternal Ban” which seems to cram a lot of what the band has previously played on the previous four songs into just over three minutes. Instrumental "Upcoming Devastation" is a pure headache job with its propulsive guitars and sound that don't seem to stop for the whole of its plus four minutes. Final track "Confused Mind" starts with a welcome acoustic intro before the inevitable final onslaught arrives which is largely more madcap hectic thrashing by our trio and personally I think the band should've gone in for something different for the album closer, as I don't think it's as strong as it could've been. Overall despite some strong progressive chord work on the album, the lack of variety limits very much to what could've been a much more impressive thrash album but of course there are those that like their thrash exactly how this album sounds. According to All Music the thrash sound of Devastation was the most American like of these bands, I’m guessing that this possibly comes from the chord progression that the band has adopted here across the album. Star turn is possibly the buzzsaw guitar of Mike Sifringer which is probably no surprise as the band were known for their guitar proficiency anyway. Eternal Devastation certainly forms a vital element in German thrash metal along with Sodom’s Agent Orange and the even more renowned in Kreator’s Pleaure to Kill (higher up this year’s list)

Marcel Schirmer- Bass/Vocals
Mike Sifringer- Guitar
Thomas Sandmann- Drums

Production- Manfred Neuner

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