Release from Agony

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Release from Agony
Studio album by Destruction

Publication
(s)

1988

admission

September 1987

Label (s) Steamhammer

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

Thrash metal

Title (number)

8th

running time

37:20

occupation
  • Harry: guitar
  • Mike: guitar
  • Olly: drums

production

Kalle Trapp

Studio (s)

Karo Studio, Münster

chronology
Eternal Devastation (1986) Release from Agony Cracked Brain (1989)

Release from Agony is the third studio album by the German thrash metal band Destruction .

Emergence

The EP Mad Butcher was the first production of the newly formed band around Marcel “Lubricant” Schirmer , Harald “Harry” Wilkes and Oliver “Olly” Kaiser and was more of a session character , as the musicians wanted to get used to it first. This was followed by recordings for the album Release from Agony , which the band took very seriously. Kalle Trapp was hired as a producer. From September 1, 1987, Destruction moved production to the Karo Studio in ( Münster ). The band paid for the studio stay themselves and took four weeks of their time.

For the compositions, guitarist Michael "Mike" Sifringer worked out the first basic ideas, which the band then developed further. Marcel "Lubricant" Schirmer wrote the lyrics. The new band member Wilkes got the opportunity as a second guitarist to add their own riffs ; in doing so, he also oriented himself towards classical arrangements. The drummer Kaiser, who originally came from jazz, brought ideas from the jazz corner with him. Schirmer later referred to Wilkens as a "scale fetishist". Sifringer later explained the band's approach to composing the pieces in this way in an interview: “We proceeded very differently than before. We matched the riffs with the drums, thought through exactly how the riffs could be accompanied by the drums, and went through note by note. It worked with [the new drummer] Ollie, but not with Tommy [Sandmann] back then. It is precisely in this area that we have made the greatest progress, I mean. ”Schirmer later criticized the guitarist Sifringer's concept and described it as progressive“ tinkling ”. Sifringer was blind to the dangers of a change of style and only saw the high level of play.

The backing vocals were sung by Kreator's front man "Mille" Petrozza .

Track list

  1. Beyond Eternity - 1:11
  2. Release from Agony - 4:44
  3. Dissatisfied Existence - 4:30
  4. Sign of Fear - 6:46
  5. Unconscious Ruins - 4:27
  6. Incriminated - 5:22
  7. Our Oppression - 4:49
  8. Survive to Die - 5:31

layout

The music is progressive, almost a bit "elegant", says ultimate-guitar.com , in contrast to the cover image.

Music style and lyrics

Metal Hammer , Rock Hard and Metal Star each used the word "complicated" to characterize the album.

Release from Agony begins with what Classic Thrash calls a stylish unison and contains a few tracks that wouldn't deviate much from the style of the first two albums. Songs like Sign of Fear, however, demonstrated a darker and more technical approach. With a lot of “brooding” riffing, the impression is “admittedly more advanced, but maybe not quite as rampant as some of the band's wildest moments in the past”. Martin Popoff wrote in his book The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties that the band is still playing chaotic Thrash Metal. The songs are technically demanding.

Oliver Klemm identified “new influences” in Metal Hammer , including classic ones, which brought progressive metal closer. For the review duo from ultimate-guitar.com , the album is characterized by a sophisticated playing technique as well as slower and more melodic songs. However, the sound is muffled due to poor production. While a reviewer has difficulty hearing the bass, his colleague thinks the instrument requires the listener's full attention. Alex Straka, who writes for powermetal.de , found the album “filigree and playful, technically high-class and songwriting arranged down to the last detail”. Matthias Herr ( Heavy Metal Lexicon , Volume 1) sees it as an unfulfilled “claim of 'seriousness'”.

According to the band, they oriented themselves towards Metallica with regard to “pressure and precision” , but the intention was not to produce a Metallica copy, they just wanted “a clean and at the same time tough Thrash sound”. Ultimate-guitar.com lists Kreator, Sodom and Exhorder as comparisons . In Survive to the voices emanating from reminiscences to the typical Glenn Miller - Swing . No similarities occurred to Oliver Klemm in the Metal Hammer . The compositions were not based on the past, but pursued their own line, he judged on the examples heard beforehand in the Karo Studio.

Schirmer explained to Klemm that classical influences had made them more progressive and that they had “set new accents for German standards”. The band no longer play one hundred percent hard Thrash, but bring in a high proportion of Progressive Rock à la Watchtower and Fates Warning , which is, however, presented in a more “fluid” manner. The pieces have been worked on for a long time and in the end they are “extremely satisfied”.

The lyrics exuded a dark mood that fits the music, comments ultimate-guitar.com . So far the English texts of the Germans have been sheer nonsense, but this time they are the best in the entire history of destruction. The title track is about a nightmare that sleep seekers fall into over and over again.

reception

Release from Agony was rated negatively by many fans or was at least ostracized by the loyal fans. Schirmer confessed in 2004: "[B] ei Release from Agony there was criticism in this country."

Classic Thrash described the album as the band's most ambitious work to date. While releases like Sentence of Death were direct and instantly accessible, Release From Agony could take time to enjoy them. Daniel Bukszan noted in The Encyclöpedia öf Heavy Metal that the album divides fans into two camps: those who would like the band's new style and those who would want the old, primitive style back.

The internet platform laut.de sums up the reception in the sentence that the record had "mixed reactions from the audience and the press".

Matthias Herr stated that the intention to enter demanding realms and to be seen as an accomplished musician with the demonstration of the playing ability had gone completely wrong, there was pure boredom "with really horrible refrains [...] and the blaring-sounding singing of Lubricant". The authors of the book Heavy Metal Made in Germany found that the album “unfortunately couldn't match the brilliant performance of the Mad Butcher mini”.

Jan Michael Dix took a central point of view in Metal Star by writing about the release: "It was certainly not bad, but [...] just didn't go with a band like Destruction".

Under the impression of the audio samples that had not yet been mixed, Klemm prophesied a song composition that was above the Thrash standard. Four weeks later he praised “her most mature musical performance to date”, and Destruction was “musically never better”. The album was worth 6 out of 7 points to him.

Uwe “Buffo” Schnädelbach counted the album together with others in Rock Hard to be one of the “excellent” of the group. Alex Straka also thinks that the “high-class ability” makes Release from Agony a top album despite the “dull shivering sound”. Instead of points, he utters an invitation to buy. Both reviewers on ultimate-guitar.com come in their final ratings (which result from various partial ratings) on 8 out of 10 possible points for an “excellent album by an undervalued band”.

The retrospective assessment of Michael Sifringer: “In terms of songwriting, I still think it's all okay, only: the songs just don't come into their own because the mix isn't good. You could have come up with better vocal lines for the songs to make it a little more catchy. Overall, it could have been a lot better. As an attempt [...] I would not want to call the whole matter now. It just happened that with Harry and Olly new people came into the band, so the situation was completely different. The other influences of the two new musicians automatically resulted in a slightly different direction. In addition, it was also the case that [they] could play the things that Tommy, for example, didn't have on the pan. It is of course possible that we have exaggerated the complicated things a little because of this. "

In an interview with Fanzine Live Wire , excerpts from the book Heavy Metal made in Germany , Schirmer explicitly addressed the sound problem: Everything was fine up to the Rough Mix, then producer Kalle Trapp botched everything.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Oliver Klemm: Destruction . Studio Report. In: Metal Hammer / Crash . November 1987, Overkill, p. 130 .
  2. ^ Garry Sharpe-Young , Horst Odermatt & Friends: The Ultimate Hard Rock Guide Vol I - Europe . Bang Your Head Enterprises Ltd, 1997, p. 158 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Detlef Dengler: 20 years of destruction . Two decades of destruction. In: Metal Hammer . June 2004, p. 50 f .
  4. ↑ a b c d e Chopped_in_Half, Sodom91: Release from Agony Review. (No longer available online.) In: ultimate-guitar.com. March 28, 2011, archived from the original on October 11, 2014 ; accessed on October 23, 2017 (English).
  5. ↑ Götz Kühnemund : Motorhead, King Diamond, Destruction . Food, Pink Palace. December 6, 1987. In: Metal Hammer . February 1988, Live on Stage, p. 104 .
  6. ↑ a b Holger Stratmann: Destruction . In: Rock Hard . No. 39 , May 1990, pp. 14th f .
  7. ↑ a b c d Jan Michael Dix: Destruction . In: Metal Star . Europe's leading hard rock. July 1990, p. 68 ff .
  8. ↑ a b Reviews - D. Classic Thrash, accessed on March 16, 2015 (English).
  9. ↑ Martin Popoff : The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2005, ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5 , pp. 95 .
  10. ↑ a b Oliver Klemm: Destruction . Release from Agony. In: Metal Hammer . December 1987, p. 49 .
  11. ↑ a b c Alex Straka: Destruction - Release from Agony. In: powermetal.de . June 20, 2004, accessed March 16, 2015 .
  12. ↑ a b Matthias Herr: Matthias Herr's Heavy Metal Lexicon . Vol. 1. Verlag Matthias Herr, Berlin March 1993, Destruction, p. 46 f . (New edition).
  13. ^ Markus Müller: Destruction . In: Deadline . No. 4 , 1990, pp. 16 .
  14. ↑ a b c Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Arno Hofmann et al .: Heavy Metal Made in Germany (=  Iron Pages ). 1st edition. IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-931624-08-0 , Destruction, p. 84 ff .
  15. ↑ Daniel Bukszan: The Encyclöpedia öf Heavy Metal . Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2012, ISBN 978-1-4027-9230-4 , pp. 77 .
  16. ↑ Destruction. Laut.de biography. In: laut.de . Retrieved March 16, 2015 .
  17. ^ Buffo [Schnädelbach]: Destruction . The crux of the matter. In: Rock Hard . No. 97 , June 1995, p. 156 .