Destruction - Infernal Overkill (REMIXED WITHOUT SENSE 2022)

Compare to original mix: This is the second part of a series of remixes that I colloquially call REMIXED WITHOUT SENSE as the topic covers Destructions discography from Sentence of Death to Cracked brain. Schmier and the rest of destruction have said numerous times over the years how shoddy the production work for their 80s work were, souring an overwise masterful display of thrashing affair. Without a doubt, Destruction was the best of the early German Teutonic thrash scene compared to their brethren Sodom and Kreator, starting off as early proto black metal pioneers and rising to become the most technical and relentless riff makers before Schmier’s departure from the band by the 90s. When the vocalist reunited with the band by the 2000s, the technical shred fest wasn’t there anymore, and the band went on to play it safe for the rest of their discography. This band really holds a special place in my heart for discovering extreme music in general, I wouldn’t have stuck around for long if it wasn’t for them. Infernal Overkill came out in 1985, which has been a special year for thrash metal. The genre was still evolving, but there were some thrash-defining albums this year, think about Bonded by Blood or Hell Awaits. The record’s sound and style cannot be called 100% polished, crystallized thrash metal as we know that genre today. It is more like the type of speed/thrash that Show No Mercy was, and/or Feel the Fire. The pace is relatively fast, the riffs are very melodic for them being thrash riffs, the music is very catchy, so this is from the same era, and the atmosphere is just as dark and evil as it gets. It is probably one of the greatest German albums. Other than its importance of establishing thrash in Europe (along with others), it is actually excellent music, much greater than a lot of the albums. Thrash records do not get better than this. It has everything. Melodies, variation, colourfulness, consistency, demolition, destruction (wink wink), musical creativity, speed, I cannot come up with a musical ingredient that is missing. Destruction really nailed it right the first time they got to write an LP. My main objective with this album was to address the main thing that stopped a lot of people from listening to this album in full, its dull sounding production which makes the album feel incredibly repetitive. Production wise, this is probably the worst the band has sounded, however. Flat drums, flat bass, even flat and supressed vocals. The only thing in this mix that even has a semblance of a personality is the guitars. Mike’s guitar tone is kind of thin, but it has the quality of a biting wind, or maybe a sharpened dagger, slicing little bits off your body with each deft manoeuvre in his flurries of notation. The remix now sacrifices some of the gain on the guitars in order to make everything else more audible, resulting in a more fulfilling mix. The drums now have a distinct pop in the snare with the bass drums just behind it in volume. Tommy Sandman now sounds like a nice well-oiled machine behind the drum kit being able to manoeuvre between the furious double kick beats into more of a NWOBHM influenced gallop especially in tracks like “The Ritual“ and “Antichrist“. The bass has a low pass filter and more emphasis in the mids to bring out more variance in the songs, extremely helpful for slow and slightly repetitive songs like “The Ritual“ and “Tormentor“. I didn’t change much from the guitars other than a slight boost in the bass frequencies to make it sound less ear grating. Now the album sound more like a NWOBHM album than a proto black metal album but I think it’s better suited this way, especially for the slower sections. There will be more to come of this series in the future so stay tuned!!! Track list: 01. Invincible Force 0:00 02. Death Trap 4:16 03. The Ritual 10:01 04. Tormentor 15:08 05. Bestial Invasion 20:11 06. Thrash Attack 24:43 07. Antichrist 27:37 08. Black Death 31:18