Destruction

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Destruction (1982-present): a Thrash Metal band from Weil am Rhein, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

ne of the German bands that was considered state-of-the-art for German thrash metal in the mid 1980s, much along the same lines as Kreator and Sodom, Destruction was supposed to open shop under the name of Knight of Demon as their first name selection, but after only a couple of weeks that was changed, what also changed was their sound changing from Iron Maiden to something akin to Kreator and Sodom in a matter of weeks.

Their 1984 'Steamhammer' release of Sentence of Death EP featured Schmier (Real Name: Marcel Schirmer; bass and later vocals), Mike Sifringer (guitar), Ulf (vocals) and Tommy Sandmann (drums). That line-up would change in 1984 when Ulf was dismissed because of a heated arguement between him and Sifringer over a girl, leaving Schmier to take over vocals on the follow-up Infernal Overkill (1985) and Eternal Devastation (1986).

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A line-up change occurred on their Mad Butcher EP (1987) with Oliver Kaiser taking on drums and Harry Wilkens taking the extra guitar. Release From Agony followed in 1988 as well as two titled Mad Butcher/Sentence of Death and Sentence Of Death/Infernal Overkill respectively, and the live effort Live Without Sense following in 1989 on the 'Noise' label. But this 1989 release found the band in turmoil, forcing Schmier to leave the band, later to form Headhunter, with Andre Grieder taking over the vocal duties for the 1990 release of Cracked Brain, an album that didn't receive favorable reviews; the band then split after the release of the compilation album titled simply Best Of (1990).

After being inactive for sometime, Sifringer recruited a new line-up of Thomas Rosenmerkel (vocals), Michael Piranio (guitar), with and Oliver Kaiser (drums) and the returning Christian Engler (bass) to release the self-financed Destruction EP (1994), followed by the Them Not Me EP (1995) and The Least Successful Human Cannonball (1998) before getting a deal with 'Nuclear Blast' as a three-piece featuring the returning Schmier and Sifringer with Sven Vormann (drums) to release All Hell Breaks Loose (2000), an album that showed them updating their thrash style. The Antichrist (2001) followed before Metal Discharge (2003) with Marc Reign now on drums. The line-up was then fairly stable for the releases of Alive Devastation live album (2003), Inventor of Evil (2005), All Hell Breaks Loose + The Antichrist compilation (2007), Thrash Anthems (2007), D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. (2008) and the The Curse of the Antichrist - Live in Agony live album in 2009.

Ol Drake would join on guitars by 2009 for the release of Day of Reckoning (2011) and Spiritual Genocide (2012), along with a set of split albums, before Randy Black took over drums in 2015 for Under Attack (2016) and Thrash Anthems II (2017).

Randy Black (drums) and Damir Eskic (guitars (lead)) were the new members of note for Born to Perish (2019).

- In the early 1990s, Flemming Rönsdorf (of-Artillery) was asked to join as vocalist. He rehearsed with the band, but ended off not joining because, according to Ronsdorf, the label didn't want to send him money in advance before the upcoming tour.
- The releases between 1994 and 1998 have been apparently disowned by the band and are now classed as "Neo-Destruction" and, although often listed, not part of the official discography.

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