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| DESTRUCTOR - Sonic Bullet LP | |
HRR 906LP, ltd 500, black vinyl, insert | |
| Dave Overkill - guitar & vocals Pat Rabid - guitar Jamie Boulder - bass Matt Flammable - drums | |
| 01 Sonic Bullet 02 Heavy Artillery 03 Silent Enemy 04 Blackest Night 05 Storm of Steel 06 Master of the Universe 07 We Are Ready 08 Pounding Evil – LIVE 09 Iron Curtain – LIVE | |
AVAILABLE | |
By 1985, Slayer, Exodus, Megadeth and Metallica had all released fantastic albums. Speed metal had truly arrived in America. Digging a bit deeper, however, there was still a lot of great new underground talent coming through. One of these bands showing enormous promise was Destructor from Cleveland in Ohio (named after the Exciter song on the »Violence & Force« album).
In 1984, two demo cassettes were issued, »Smash Your Skulls With Power« and »Bring Down The Hammers«, before Destructor’s eponymous debut album »Maximum Destruction« saw the light of day in November 1985 on Auburn Records.
Before the band could start working on a follow-up to »Maximum Destruction« for good, disaster struck. Their original bassist Dave Holocaust was stabbed to death on January 1st 1988. “That was a very difficult time in my life,” explains founding member and guitarist/singer Dave Overkill. “Everything we ever hoped and dreamed of seemed to slip right through our hands. There was a couple of years where we were just having to deal with the murder trial and then find another member for the band while time was slipping away.”
Indeed it took 15 more years for a new Destructor record to see the light of day. »Sonic Bullet« was recorded by Dave Overkill (guitar, vocals), Pat Rabid (guitar), Jamie Boulder (bass) and Matt Flammable (drums) on different occasions in 2000, 2002 and 2003 and consisted of new tracks “Sonic Bullet”, “Heavy Artillery”, “Silent Enemy”, “Blackest Night”, “Storm Of Steel”, ”Master Of The Universe” and “We Are Ready”, plus live-versions of “Pounding Evil” and “Iron Curtain” from »Maximum Destruction« (taken from a show the band played with Slayer at an outdoor theater in Cleveland, Ohio).
“We had two new songs at the time,” explains Dave Overkill. “'Sonic Bullet' and 'Heavy Artillery' and thought we would just make an EP but Auburn Records wanted to turn it into a full-length. Destructor has recorded what would later be titled »Back In Bondage« two years earlier. That whole album was songs we wrote when Dave Iannicca (aka Dave Holocaust) was with us. It was important for us to try to tie up unfinished business. Auburn Records took a couple of songs from that session and used it for »Sonic Bullet« and added our cover version of Hawkwind's 'Master Of The Universe' and some live material. We were big space rock fans and thought if we do a cover song, it should not be of another heavy metal band but of another time and place and bring it into our own.”
The band's original plan was to release a series of EPs but Auburn Records and Bill Peters had other plans: “The label wanted 'new' songs first, to show that we were a relevant band and not just trying to rest on our past songs. I held on to those sessions and made a deal with Pure Steel Records years later because I didn’t want it to sit on a shelf. That record ended being the last recordings we had with Pat Rabid on guitar.”
Once again, »Sonic Bullet« is direct, no-frills, down to earth thrash metal – nothing more, nothing less. Overkill laughs: “That was exactly the intent and to this day we don’t have any grand ideas of sounding like anything but what people expect from Destructor.” “I had the idea for the title »Sonic Bullet« when reading some articles about the military using sonic waves as a deterrent for riots,” he continues, “and even to be used as a weapon for war. It spoke to me and seemed to fit the Destructor themes.”
The High Roller edition of »Sonic Bullet« does feature alternative artwork. Dave Overkill closes: “I never liked the original cover. It didn’t sell the »Sonic Bullet« concept. I commissioned an artist, Larry Weber, to re-imagine the cover. I think he did a great job. Larry Weber also did the »Decibel Casualties« album art that came out on Pure Steel Records.”