Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Deströyer 666
Label: Season Of Mist
Release: year_month
Runtime: 39:17
Rating: 4/5
What can kill you in Australia? Sharks, jellyfish, crocodiles, dozens of venomous snakes and spiders, probably some hungry dingoes, hopped-up kangaroos, Crocodile Dundee and rabid koalas too. And Australian black/thrash veterans Deströyer 666 kill as well. Okay, hand on heart, Deströyer 666 are about as Australian these days as AC/DC (originally Scots, of course), since they’ve been living and working in Europe for years, but that makes them no less venomous. After a solid seven years since the release of Defiance (2009), the Destroyer returns with a new toxin, Wildfire, and in a way it’s probably the most pivotal album of their career.
A little under four years ago, the band lost longtime guitarist Shrapnel, the main culprit behind the relentless barrage of black/thrash riffs, and the question was whether the band could pick itself up after the departure of one of its main songwriters. They pulled it off so well that you don’t miss Shrapnel at all from the very first moments of the album.
Compared to past releases, Wildfire is a much cleaner, more polished affair, which doesn’t mean it’s any less raw, brutal and aggressive. All the essential Deströyer 666 elements are still here – tearing thrash riffs, infectious melodies and the signature »hook« that sets them apart from stylistically similar but more primitive bands, except this time K.K. Warslut’s love of classic heavy metal flows through the album and channels itself even more than before. Which is obvious even to the deaf after the first killer falsetto scream in the opening Traitor.
Deströyer 666 tear through Wildfire as relentless as all four horsemen of the apocalypse rolled into one, leaving behind nothing but pure wasteland, laced with a huge cloud of fiery soloing, merciless riffage and top-notch »sing-along choruses«. From the opening killer Traitor on, the highlights come one after another, since Live And Burn already bites, stings and poisons with its energy like all the critters listed above. The instrumental Artiglio del Diavolo is just a short heavy metal intro to the album’s best track and without a doubt one of the band’s best songs ever, Hounds At Ya Back, which is marked above all by its jolting build-up of intensity and an outstanding chorus that should absolutely become a live staple. In the second half, the not quite effective Hymn to Dionysus and Die You Fucking Pig! fare somewhat worse, but the title-track wrecker, the Motörhead-style White Line Fever and the epic closer Tamam Shud fix the taste.
Deströyer 666 on Wildfire are what Pratchett’s Death is – they speak (and play) loud, thunderous and IN CAPITAL LETTERS! More than enough reason not to miss Wildfire tomorrow, April 14, 2016, at Channel Zero!
Lineup
KK – vocals, guitar
Perra – drums
Felipe – bass, vocals
Ro – guitar
Production
Mersus and Laurent Teubl
Tracklist
1. Traitor
2. Live And Burn
3. Artiglio del Diavolo
4. Hounds At Ya Back
5. Hymn of Dionysus
6. Wildfire
7. White Line Fever
8. Die You Fucking Pig!
9. Tamam Shud
