How does one describe musical perfection? Is it the ability to play one's instrument(s) at the highest level of technicality possible or is it the talent of being able to combine musical notes into inspiring, memorable and effective pieces? I like to think that it's somewhere in beetween, and that's what we have here, a riff-laden thrash masterpiece of violence and intensity. Schmier (vocalist/bassist) leads the stampede with "screams" that don't exactly push the limits of human ability but are quite effective at grabbing your attention because you can really tell that he's pushing the limits of his vocal chords (sorta like what Chuck Schuldiner was doing on "painkiller" only a lot better). Mike's (guitars) solos are placed in the exact right places and aren't excessive in an attempt to show off his technical capabilities (death to all guitar wankers!). Sven's drumming on this album is great as well, a big improvement from the skinsmanship this band had back in the day. Overall, this is definately my pick for album of 2000. However, i do have two big bitches about this album: The lyrics are horrible! Case in point: "You did hurt my friends and you've destroyed my property/Fear speeds all around like cancer at the last stage/You're a dangerous criminal ruthless violent animal/Why did I trust in the power of the law?" There's no excuse for that kind of content, even if they are German and thus probably don't know how to speak English very well. Moving on, it seems as though this whole album keeps the same tempo throughout the whole damn thing, outside of a few changes. As you can imagine, this can be very frustrating to the listener. On my last note, the packaging for this album rules as well! The cover for it is very weird (a requirement for all Destruction albums) and the photo shoot they did for this album looks really bad ass because they're all wearing bullet belts and inverted crosses and Schmier has this shot gun. There's also this really cool colage of old and new pics of the band. All in all i say...

THE BUTCHER IS BACK!

This review is credited to:
thegreatozz

This is a big,Fuck Off! going out to bands like Slayer,Metallica,Anthrax and Kreator.You don't know how to thrash anymore?Then check out this album, this is Thrash Metal how it's supposed to be;hard, brutal and skull crushing!After a short intro,frontman Schmier (bass, vocals),Mike (guitars),and their new mate behind the kit,Sven Vormann,thrash as if the nineties and the album Cracked Brain had never existed!The songs "The Final Curtain", "Machinery Of Lies", "Tears Of Blood", my new anthem,"The Butcher Strikes Back", as well as the new recording of "Total Desaster" are a fist in the face of everything trendy,where the mid-tempo steam engines "X-Treme Measures" and "All Hell Breaks Loose" roll over everything in sight like battle and help the band to achieve "World Domination Of Pain".A compliment goes out to Peter Tägtgren as well, who produced this muthatfucka well.At the end i got the suprise of a lifetime when i heard the hidden song....a fucking thrash til ya die cover of Metallica's Whiplash.Way fucking better than the original.

This review is credited to:
Death_Explosion

My how the times have changed. 13 years ago, this album would have been just another in a multitude of very solid thrash offerings from the land of steinhoists, lederhösen and little megalomaniacs named Adolf. Yet now, the well of top-tier German thrash is all but bone-dry, and this album suddenly becomes a landmark of headbanging, fistbanging superiority. A pseudo-reunion album, All Hell Breaks Loose reunites Destruction's original creative core of Mike Sifringer (guitars) and Schmier Schirmer (vocals/bass) and effectively revives the thrash spirit that this band was the personification of 16 years ago.

Aside from the spit-shined Abyss Studios production, All Hell Breaks Loose is a rather nostalgic opus. Everything, from the crunch-laden riffs to the quasi-clean shouted vocals to the hypnotically catchy choruses, the formula here holds about as true to the original Kraut-thrash formula as possible in the year 2000. Yet it would be a crime to hold a complete lack of originality against this album simply because it is a member of a nigh-extinct species... unadulterated old-school thrash done the right way. With many bands trying as hard as possible, often a little too hard, to innovate the metal sound, it's refreshing to see one of the bands that shaped the path that metal would follow from the mid-80's onward returning to that same classic sound.

Destruction is a band that simply refuses to show their age. Very few bands in their mid-30's would even begin to conceive writing a song as fast or relentless as "The Final Curtain", "Tears of Blood", "The Butcher Strikes Back" or "All Hell Breaks Loose". Even the more mid-paced tracks like "Visual Prostitution" and "X-Treme Measures" display a youthful, uncompromising energy that just about every other member of the original thrash movement have been drained of, be it due to age or willingness to conform. Even Schmier's vocals have withstood the test of time with amazing resilience, showing no sign of giving up on thrash. Destruction quite simply spits in the face of every current musical trend and standard with this album. Especially cool is the way they poke fun of $elloutica with their cover of "Whiplash"... I won't divulge all, but let's just say they do it in a very subtle way - namely by changing one key line within the song.

My only real complaint about this album is that the sound is a tad too bottom-heavy. I feel this way about just about every Tägtgren-produced album, but in this case, I feel that a more trebly sound would have not only made the excellent lead guitars more audible, but also strengthened even further the throwback thrash feel. However, this is just pointless carping on my part. Go grab this album if you're craving thrash with no strings attached.

This review is credited to:
The Havoc Vulture