Deströyer 666 - Violence is the Prince of this World EP (1995)

Though I wasn't initially too impressed with this band, Deströyer 666 was one I got in on the ground floor with, having heard this first EP and their debut through a local CD import shop. Australian black metal was a bit of a novelty, I had heard Bestial Warlust and this band around the same time and that was all, and my initial impressions were that it mirrored the Canadian war metal stuff a lot more than the Scandinavian bands I was completely enthralled by. I think that still holds true for this early material, but K.K. Warslut and company were definitely set on a path that would evolve for the better, and I think you can hear that even on Violence is the Prince of This World. It might not one of my favorites in their legacy, but this shit sounds positively savage even 30 years later.

There are definitely those blasted and soulless passages reminiscent of the war metal stuff, but there is a little more structure to some of the riffing, based around a vile thrashing aesthetic, a little bit of death metal also in the churn of the rhythm guitar. When they do resort to that primitive blasting, they retain a little bit of atmosphere through the riff choices, which to their credit, are a lot more interesting to follow than some other 'blast and forget' bands of the time, including arguably some of Marduk's material, though this stuff isn't as intense as something like Panzer Division Marduk. The guitars wind through these sections like serpents, and I also liked the warlike presence of the bass guitar which actually recalled for me some of the earlier Voivod records if they were just pitched at a higher speed. The drumming is a little bit of a clatter but it's also really well done for its day, effortlessly blasting or rolling out the double bass patterns to support the snaky distortion on the guitars.

I think the real star of the show here is how Warslut's nihilistic barking, which sounds like a midway point between black, death, and Germanic proto-black thrash styles, fuses itself so well to those frillier guitars and the primordial beating of the drums. This is the component that feels like the nuclear holocaust you're seeing on the cover art, and he definitely earns his nickname with it. Another strong point is that they definitely avoid monotony with some change-ups, for instance "Song for a Devil's Son" doesn't follow the same course as "An Endless Stream of Bombers", the band was working to create distinct tunes while merging them all together under the same banner of aggression. The mix can be a little uneven, some tunes coming across rawer than others, and it's certainly not their most coherent material, but I've always thought of this as 'war metal' with a little more memorable structure to latch on to, and whilst its one of the last things I'll reach for when I crave Deströyer 666, there's a timeless, vulgar charm to it which I cannot ignore.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.destroyer666.uk/