The fifth horsemen…Has lost his way. – 40%
Forever Underground, November 29th, 2022
One thing that fascinates me about many extreme metal fans is that they are unable to let go of the past and accept that those bands that were once the most important representations of the underground have long since ceased to be so. I’m not even referring to the attitude towards big bands like Iron Maiden or Metallica where there is this condescending mentality where with every new release from these bands as long as it’s not a “Lulu” or a “Virtua XI” it’s going to be widely acclaimed and valued over work that deserves more recognition, but this is so because bands like this have represented a lot on a musical and cultural level over different decades and their members have earned and deserve their title as professional musicians, so even if it’s not the best in the world it’s respectable that bands like this occupy some of the space that would be given to other smaller bands. But when we talk about a case like Destroyer 666 this is far from being the same thing, there is a kind of aura that surrounds this band that seems that we have to keep talking about them no matter how much time has passed since their last quality release, just because of their name they deserve our attention, And I am the first one to blame for this, not in vain when in a couple of days they release their sixth album “Never Surrender” I myself will invest my time in listening to it and even in writing a review despite the fact that I know beforehand that it is going to be an album that will bring me nothing. But at least I’m aware of it, because for some reason, fans of this kind of bands (which are in obvious decline) still see them as the ultimate musical representation of the underground, or at least that’s the impression I get from people who for some reason get their eyes lit up when bands like this announce new material when the best they could contribute to the scene was 20 years ago.
So Wildfire is not at all a return to the paths of glory by Destroyer 666, in fact, in a way it could be catalogued as their simplest and less ambitious album, almost all the songs follow the same trail trying desperately to be catchy and memorable, although they fail miserably in the attempt, all the choruses full of backing vocals shouting in unison the title of the song, as if that was enough to make a simple song memorable, in the end what they achieve is that the album as a whole feels like a compendium of songs that sound the same and that does nothing to make me want to listen to it again.
The only two songs that don’t follow such a simple and repetitive structure are the instrumental “Artiglio del Diavolo” whose only reason to exist is to be a preview for “Hounds at Ya Back” and to make its beginning make more sense and give it more depth than it actually has, so it’s a filler. And the other song that doesn’t follow the typical pattern is “Tamam Shud” which is a totally empty and innocuous song that extends up to 7 minutes, with this song they try to recreate the end of albums they have already made like “Onward to Arktoga” or “A Sermon to the Dead” which is much more atmospheric with a mid tempo rhythm, this is a trick I’ve seen this band do right and wrong, and in this case it falls into the latter option “Tamam Shud” is boring and feels totally out of place on the album, again, it feels like a last minute filler to give the album the “essence” of Destroyer 666 to keep the fans satisfied and remind them that they are still that same band that impressed them so much many years ago (even though they are not anymore).
In terms of songwriting we are without a doubt in front of the worst moment of the band, even in their worst album the aggressiveness of the songs was more latent and you could notice a certain quality in the abilities of the members, but here everything is so reduced to the essence of the purest simplicity that there is nothing that can stand out, The only good thing that comes out of it is that you don’t feel terrible listening to it, in terms of production and quality of the recording the work is more than solid and one can say that if we limit ourselves to evaluate if it fulfills its function of entertaining album without any pretension but to a certain point it delivers.
But for a Destroyer 6666 album to simply deliver after a 7 year gap between this and the last album seems to me a shameless act, a total display of laziness and lack of commitment from Keith, who by now was the only remaining member of the original band, and I think that with this album he made evident the dependence of Shrapnel in this band, going from being a group that made an excellent black/thrash with a very rich songwriting in several aspects to a band that the best they can provide is a collection of simple songs that contribute nothing more than a lack of stability to the band’s discography. This is sadly what Destroyer 666 has been reduced to.
Deixe um comentário