Destruction may be one of the progenitors of the German thrash metal movement of the 1980s, but
Metal Discharge -- an awful title that unwittingly and humorously implies a particularly painful symptom of some unnamed, fictional disease -- the group's third album since re-forming in 2000, sounds painfully dated and disappointingly one-dimensional. Sure, the toothy riffs come appropriately fast and furious throughout -- always one of
Destruction's strong points -- but every song is a borderline-annoying buzz of double-time tempos, relentlessly busy guitar work, and tunelessly barked vocals (backed by gangland-style chants, usually reiterating the song title in a deluge of eyeball-rolling obviousness). Point being, these hyper-thrash polkas get tiresome over the course of 40 minutes, regardless of the professionalism of their presentation, and the poker-faced delivery of multiple clichés during cheesy cuts such as "Rippin' the Flesh Apart" and "Historical Force Feed" (?) borders on nonsensical.
Destruction has certainly built an impenetrable fortress of riffs here, but attempting any kind of siege on
Metal Discharge (snicker) seems silly, and a bit pointless. ~ John Serba