Album Details

• Artist: Desaster
• Album: The Arts Of Destruction
• Label: Metal Blade Records
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: solitaryman on 2012-03-21

Almost exactly 4 years ago, I had the great pleasure of coming across one of Germany's longest-running metal acts in Desaster and their fantastic album 666 - Satan's Soldier Syndicate. I admit they had fallen off my radar, but a recent note in my inbox led me to their newest release, The Arts of Destruction. It sounds like a logical next step, firmly rooted in it's thrashy, black metal foundations and chock full of memorable riffs, thick percussion and twisted, morbid vocals.

An irrelevant intro leads into the title track, a full-blown monster of a re-introduction to Desaster. Their guitar tone is, save for some minor tweaks here and there, reminiscent of later-era Immortal and Mayhem, with a strangled sort of high-end pitch that really helps dictate the aggressive nature of the songwriting. Besides this early standout, the doomy accents of "The Splendour of the Idols" interlaced with a more up-tempo assault complement each other well early on. "Queens of Sodomy" is pure Venom worship, a punk-fueled bit of carnage as simple and blunt as a mace to the skull. The more elaborate leads and percussive frenzy of "At Hell's Horizon" make a big impact, as does the more melodic and ambitious "Possessed and Defiled", which clocks in at over 8 minutes. Where I had expected "Outro" to let the album fade away on some darkened cloud of atmosphere or ambience, instead the band throws a little instrumental jam in to close things off, which is actually quite refreshing. 

With only a couple of minor complaints (the vocals wear thin soon enough and the production does tend to be rather flat in spots), The Arts of Destruction has it where it counts and makes an early case for being one of the better extreme metal albums of 2012. Where their previous album left me wanting more, Desaster have gone about satisfying that craving, 4 years later and all. 

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