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. Their debut album »Maximum Destruction« was issued in 1985 by Auburn Records and received outstanding press reactions in North America as well as in continental Europe. “Cleveland had a very strong metal scene at the time,” explains vocalist and guitarist Dave Overkill. “Other bands were just established one, two or three years before we became a real band. There was Breaker, Black Death, Shok Paris and Sacred Few but no other band was playing as heavy and as aggressive as Destructor, so when we finally got a show people were amazed by our style. It was the bass player from Breaker, Ian Shipley, who introduced us to a wild and crazy drummer named Matt Schindelar in 1984. Matt immediately replaced the drummer we had at the time and the real Destructor was born.” 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, thanks to Bill Peters. “Bill approached us after our first show and asked us if we wanted to record an EP,” recalls Dave Overkill. “We were young and hungry, so of course we said yes. Bill Peters was just starting to establish Auburn Records at this time. We didn’t know anything about the record business. Auburn did a great job for us. We had no complaints.” After the album, a further cassette called »Overdosed At WRUW« was issued in a limited edition of 100 copies. This was followed by two more tapes, »Decibel Casualties« (four tracks, 1987) and »Power Aggression« (nine tracks, 1988). This material was supposed to form the basis of a possible second album. However, as a possible deal with Island Records fell through and bassist Dave Holocaust was killed in an assault, the band threw in the towel: “Dave was like a brother to us. We loved Dave. We were in a downward spiral that we couldn’t seem to get out of. Then the 1990’s came and metal was replaced in the States with grunge. We missed our chance. Destructor called it a day after a show we played with the band Overkill in 1992. It all seemed useless to continue at this point.”
The double CD also includes a re-mix of the album plus an entire disc full of demos, rehearsals and live recordings.
