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Destroy Destroy Destroy > Battle Sluts > Reviews
Destroy Destroy Destroy - Battle Sluts

DDD, where hast thou gone? - 68%

Valfars Ghost, July 15th, 2018

Awww yeah, I remember buying this when I was in high school and loving this exciting blend of metal genres that nobody on this side of the Atlantic seems to be interested in. Occasionally I'll revisit this album and, while Destroy Destroy Destroy is certainly not the greatest American band to put out their own spin on European metal trends, I'll still mourn the fact these guys seem to have vanished.

Back when this album was still new to me, it seemed like a melting pot of all the attributes I found so appealing about various types of Euro metal, with a faint but undeniable American flavor added to it like a squirt of lemon. Battle Sluts had shrieking vocals reminiscent of Hat from early Gorgoroth albums, an instrumental approach that seemed like a mixture of power metal and melodeath, and some orchestration straight from the symphonic and viking metal movements, all brought together with a refreshing sense of postmodern irony and self-ridicule, or at least an obvious recognition of the lyrics' absurdity, that very few metal bands ever employ. There are also shades of metalcore throughout, but they’re not strong or pervasive enough to derail the album or even any of the individual songs.

After the obligatory intro (the kind Ensiferum puts at the start of each album), a crunching, militaristic march leads us into the fury of ‘Battle Upon the Arctic Plains,’ a song that effectively encapsulates what the rest of Battle Sluts has to offer: shouted and shrieked lyrics about over-the-top fantasy concepts, galloping drums, riffs that seem to be half power metal, half melodeath, and keyboard orchestration and symphonic touches (like fake warhorns) that tie everything together with a hint of Wagnerian grandeur. Bryan Kemp's shrieks are somewhat grating and mixed too high, a problem that’s present throughout the album. The crunching riffs, double bass drumming, and the swelling keyboard-driven atmosphere never do enough to draw attention away from the metalcore yowling that is frequently used instead of the more tolerable shrieks and growls but Kemp’s vocal sins also fail to drown out the appealing blend of Euro-metal tropes.

Though all the main songs here are built on a foundation of Gothenburg riffs, power metal-inflected leads, and blast beats, they’re by no means carbon copies of each other. The band clearly constructed this album with memorability in mind, delivering catchy choruses in songs that are built around traditional structures and rendered with a pristine production job. While ‘Beyond the Scorpion Gate’ and ‘Agents of Hypocrisy’ are straightforward shows of force that demonstrate what the album’s all about, their symphonic flourishes and busy keyboard melodies in the background providing a little bit of texture behind the barbaric riffs and screams, a few of these songs stand out with sonic elements their album-mates don’t have. The mid-paced ‘Born of Thunder’ has a few verses that are surprisingly sparse with nothing but drums and tinkling keys to accompany Kemp’s vocals. ‘The Return of the Geishmal Undead’, meanwhile, is the most Viking metal-influenced, with plenty of deep-voiced chanting and a somber, almost waltzlike melody that carries the chorus.

And what mélange of European metal tropes would be complete without soft intros and interludes? The ones in this album don’t offer much at all, except the interlude in 'The Winged Panther', which features mournful orchestration and a soft croon from some uncredited guest vocalist that lends the tune more emotional power than a song entitled 'The Winged Panther' should ever have. And then there’s the final song, which is kind of like an outro that nobody took seriously. After half a minute of silence (which is pointless because this isn't a hidden track), 'Battle Slut Drinking Song' kicks in, delivering what sounds like all the band members singing some goofy drinking song without instrumental accompaniment while totally wasted in a cafeteria full of people who are equally plastered. The song features lyrics about “Fuck(ing) minotaurs in the butt” and the gods making the vocalists’ dicks incredibly long. The song, in fact, was written and performed while drunk, according to the lyric booklet, so, not surprisingly, it's incredibly sloppy and goddamn annoying, not even having much value as a joke. Parts of the song are somewhat amusing the first time you hear them but every single section is a painful chore to slog through on all subsequent listens.

Destroy Destroy Destroy seems to have been a group of metalcore kids that found out about Kalmah, Ensiferum, and Falkenbach one day and decided they wanted to funnel these new ideas into what they were doing. Assuming this unrealistic and overly simplistic scenario is true, the group did a fine job overall, delivering a satisfying mixture that washes away most of their metalcore influences, even if the singer needs to take a few more cues from the melodeath and power metal bands the rest of the band is emulating. While they certainly weren't perfect, DDD provided a bombastic mix of harsh elements from numerous subgenres and wrapped it up in a fun package. This album is a huge improvement over the notorious Devour the Power and I only wish the band could have stayed around long enough to improve upon its formula even more.

War Whores? - 90%

ReapSoul964, June 28th, 2011

Destroy Destroy Destroy hails from the bitter, battle-torn lands of the USA. The group trudged into the music world through the blizzards and ice storms of TN. Clad in leather and wielding medieval weaponry, Destroy Destroy Destroy is prepared to take on any horde that comes from...

As you can probably tell by now, Destroy Destroy Destroy is one of the most ridiculous bands out there. For being so goofy with their music, they've truly lowered the bar for what is acceptable in heavy metal music. While this normally would be bad, Destroy Destroy Destroy is doing this on purpose. The point of this band isn't to make groundbreaking music or to have technically demanding parts. There are no great lyrical themes that the group came up with. This is simply an album to listen to for fun. It is an amazing album for people who have a sense of humor. If you have no sense of humor, then you probably shouldn't listen to this album.

The songwriting is far from amazing. There is nothing incredibly memorable. The songs are good, but that's really about all they've got going for them. The group takes a lot from multiple influences and combines all of it together in a somewhat generic way. The main influences are power metal, with epic keyboards taking the place of guitar leads and fast double kick parts driving the song along. Guitar solos are present as well. They've also got a pretty big modern melodic death metal influence, though that comes heavily from their base in power metal. Their guitar riffs are pretty simplistic, but they are generally pretty fast or pretty grandiose. This helps give the album a sense of being epic, though it fails to do that in a way that makes it funny.

The instrumentation is pretty nice. Like I said, the drum and guitar parts are pretty generic. They don't offer anything new, but they aren't a pain to listen to. They keep the songs going in a pretty nice fashion. The keyboards, though, are where the band shines through. There are many epic sections featuring brass orchestration that help to give this album its highly-deserved viking helmet. If this album did not have the keyboard parts that it has, I would not like it. The rest of the instruments are fine, but they are not good enough for this album to stand as strongly as it does. The keyboard atmospheres fit in perfectly with the attitude of the band. In this case, the cheesier the keyboards, the better the song.

One of my favorite parts of the album is the vocalist's range and power. I rarely hear a vocalist with such a good harsh range. As Blood Runs Black's old vocalist had a pretty similar range, though it was lower on the register. Stu Block of Into Eternity also has a nice range, but none of them can match this guy. I hate to say it, but his harsh range is even more enjoyable than Christian Alvestam, though Alvestam is the better overall vocalist... anyway, the vocalist had enough power to get some brutal lows out and he had the ability to push out some massive shrieks higher, stronger, and darker than I've heard on many black metal albums. The vocalist's mid-range was pretty good, too, though he mostly stayed in between the shrieks and that mid-range. This vocalist is my favorite screamer of all time because of that range.

Most of the negative reviews I've read about this band rant on four things. The first rant is about their metalcore influences. To be honest, I can't really hear a lot of metalcore influences. I hear more from power metal. I guess you could argue that some of their riffing can fit hardcore music more, but I really don't feel it. They don't go into any chugging breakdowns. They do follow standard song forms (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-etc), which hardcore music does WAY too much, but I still don't understand where people get the metalcore part from. The next is their lack of innovative instrumentation. I agree that they aren't the best musicians ever. I agree that they could play their instruments better. I agree they wouldn't be as interesting without the keyboard parts. This music isn't meant to be technical. It is just meant to be fun. The third is their keyboard abuse. I have no problem with this since I like having a lot of symphonic and orchestral elements in the music I listen to. If you don't like power metal or symphonic melodeath, then you shouldn't be listening to this album. There's no reason to bash them because you don't like keyboards. The final rant is about their cheesiness. Like I said earlier, if this band is too cheesy for you, then you should be listening to something else. One thing I've noticed, though, is that a lot of people who dislike Destroy Destroy Destroy really like many of the pioneering black metal bands. They are also incredibly cheesey in their lyrical themes, yet you don't seem to have a problem with them. That's just my opinion, so take it as you will.

Destroy Destroy Destroy is like the Weird Al of heavy metal in general and is like the Dream Evil or Powerglove of melodic death metal. They have no real artistic significance in anywhere besides comedy, but in the realm of comedy, this is gold. If you take this album seriously, then you will not like it. If you take Weird Al seriously, then he has nothing going for him. However, that is the strength of this album and that is why it gets such a high rating. When it comes to Destroy Destroy Destroy, you either love cheese or you are lactose intolerant. That's just what these guys are. If you can take a big chunk of cheese and enjoy it, then you can take a big chunk of Destroy Destroy Destroy and enjoy it. Hopefully, these vikings can pillage a few more golden war stories for us to hear in the future.

Suck Suck Suck...or some variation thereof. - 30%

Empyreal, February 10th, 2010

Stupidest band name of the year, right here, guys. Destroy Destroy Destroy? Come on, there were no Children of Bodom songs you guys could’ve named yourselves after? What a load of ass. I’m already not excited about reviewing this stinker, but the band and album names sure don’t help. Battle Sluts? I get the Sluts part, but the battle part throws me off.

So, yeah, Destroy Destroy Destroy! As if we didn’t have enough shitty modern melodeath bands with screeching vocals and double-bass drum abuse trying to win the hearts of the world’s grown up Avenged Sevenfold fans, this band, hailing from the frostbitten, battle-torn wastelands of Nashville, Tennessee, has the gimmick of using slight Power Metal influences and orchestrations behind their usually very played-out, dry music. I guess the intent was to be epic, or something, but that is not the feeling I get from this. The music on this album varies between being facelessly, superficially heavy and fast to just plain old boring and enervated when they try to incorporate the “epic” stuff.

Like listen to “Born of Thunder” – the band tries to put these orchestrations behind the usual fast riffs and drumming, and it just sounds so slow, rather than triumphant. Epic? Pfft. I’ve mowed lawns more epically than this band writes songs. It’s really more of a gimmick than true, genuine originality, as I really do not think that putting subdued keyboard orchestrations behind your otherwise formulaic and bland music counts as any kind of creative nuance. It’s mostly just a curiosity for a few minutes.

And once again, people are falling for it, proving that apparently you do not need captivating songs, memorable hooks or musical depth to get people to like your music, you just need fast riffs and extreme/brutal tempos, along with some truly hamfisted, ridiculous song titles and lyrics to make people think what they’re listening to is Real Metal ™., since real metal always has Cheesy Fantasy Lyrics, right? Yes, this is real metal, but that is no indication of its quality. The first song has some okay riffs, and some of the other songs do, too, but this whole thing is just so insipid. It is transparent, without a lick of any kind of integrity at all. Every note has already been heard, and they aren’t performed here with any finesse or reason for me to give a shit. By the time the dragging, sluggish “Return of the Geishmal Undead” (seriously; what the fuck?) rolled around, I was as tired of this as I ever have been of any album.

The “original” parts of this band’s sound only really serve to highlight how boring and stale the rest of it is. The band does not use their original ideas in any kind of overt or direct way, because…I guess that would get in the way of their oh-so-amazing-and-interesting Children of Bodom-style riffs and yowling vocals? I just don’t get the logic behind why this band wouldn’t use their outside influences to better effect. It’s so downplayed that it doesn’t really have much effect, and I don’t understand why anyone is clamoring over this stuff. It’s really some of the most enervated, dull, hacked up modern metal I’ve ever heard; just really, really bland.

Every once in a while, like on the acoustic intro to “Agents of Hypocrisy,” they sound fresh, but then the song just goes back to clicky, fidgety, ADD-fueled modern metal that can’t sit still for two seconds. Oh, except for the riffs that almost sound like they came out of a bad Killswitch Engage song, can’t forget those! God, this sucks! What, so people are actually saying that this is interesting and somehow relevant, too? Bullshit! This is a sack of flaming dog crap on the proverbial front door of Heavy Metal. No thought, no creativity, just another cartoonish caricature of everything this genre stands for. If you see this album lying around somewhere, my advice is to destroy destroy destroy it and never look back as long as you live. Abhorrent.

A band worshiping their idols - 40%

linkavitch, October 19th, 2009

Usually when I come across a band or an album with a strange name I usually assume that it is a gimmick of some sort. In this case I was wrong, for Destroy Destroy Destroy is not a gimmick act, and Battle Sluts is not a gimmick album. Destroy Destroy Destroy, a rather basic band to understand. They are a band that basically worships their idols music to the fact that they feel almost like a cover band, and their two main idols would be Children of Bodom and 3 Inches of Blood. Now for a band that is basically a clone of another band they don’t suck as much as CoB, but they have the exact same problems that CoB has.

As it would turn out Battle Sluts is heavily influenced by those two bands. Here’s where the problem occurs though, Battle Sluts is heavily influenced by those two bands. If you do not like Children of Bodom or 3 Inches of Blood at all, you will despise this album for it’s basically a cutout of all of their albums. As it would turn out I am not the world’s biggest CoB fan so this album became quite annoying rather quickly for me. Basically the exact reasons as to why I do not like CoB are the same reasons as to why I do not like Battle Sluts. For starters, the keyboards are the main reason as to why I cannot get into either band. The keyboard part is so awkward compared to the rest of the music. The keyboard will be playing some light surgery 80’s melody over some heavy guitar riff and some hardcore screaming, together it sounds so awkward it’s really irritating to even listen to for even ten seconds. As for the 3 Inches of Blood influences, the vocals are mostly hardcore screaming just like 3IoB, and the whole war and metal theme sometimes makes it feel like a parody of itself.

The album does have some positives though. A lot of thrash riffs with a surprising good dose of melody drive the music along with some very nice orchestra sections that remind me of an epic battle. One thing that DDD has going on is that they know how to create the atmosphere of a battle going on. The music is generally catchy with all the keyboards and melodies about, so it is really easy to tell who the fans of this album would be.

However, at the end of the day what we got here is an album that isn’t really offensive or anything at first, but as it goes on it starts to get annoying and its value dies quickly. The diversity of the album isn’t a problem for all the songs tend to blend into each other, the band members clearly know what they want. The only thing I can really say about Battle Sluts is that I did not like it because it is heavily influenced by a band I do not like. Fans of Children of Bodom will certainly enjoy this, particularly fans of their older catalog, but everyone else might as well skip this release.

The Battle Sluts Are Upon Us - 85%

t_mager, February 17th, 2009

Blackened melodic power thrash. This is what I am dubbing the official genre of Destroy Destroy Destroy. Confused? Let's put it this way: take one part Helloween, one part Children of Bodom, throw in some black metal style fantasy laced vocals and you've got yourself this Tennessee band. Just by looking at the album's title, you know these guys don't take themselves seriously in the slightest. They are all about having a good time and playing some kick ass Viking battle music. Did I mention that the music is ridiculously catchy?

From the opening instrumental "The Second Coming" you can really tell what kind of album this is going to be. I felt like I was diving straight into the heat of battle. You are immediately pummeled with orchestral background music, melodic keyboard arrangements and of course bruising thrash metal complete with flurries of riffs and machine gun drumming. Guitarists Way Barrier and Jeremiah Scott do an excellent job of creating some impressive catchy riffs along with maintaining a brutal presence ("The Wretched Forest").

I mentioned the vocals in the first part of the review; Bryan Kemp does a fairly good job with the black metal style shrieks and snarls. He maintains a ferocious presence while also being easy to understand and sing along with. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this release is the quality of keyboard playing and how well the keys fit with the rest of the music (hear solo in "Realm of Ancient Shadows"). I am utterly in awe with the attention to detail, smooth transitions and background orchestral style created by Chris Dauphin.

Unfortunately there are not nearly enough solos (keyboards and guitar) to compete with the fantastic background film score style music. More folk style elements would have been really nice, only in a few places such as "The Return of Geishmal Undead" is the element present. Incorporating more of these would have really allowed the album to successfully merge all kinds of great metal genres into a great release. The album is overall very well made and one of the more enjoyable releases of 2009 thus far.

Best Cuts: "Realm of Ancient Shadows", "Born of Thunder", "The Return of Geishmal Undead"

Good: Extremely fun and catchy music that you can head bang and sing along to no matter your mood. Keyboards are cool and add a lot to the album.

Bad: More solos would have been nice as well as using more folk style elements.

Review originally written for http://flatlinemusic.blogspot.com

A Hatebreeder beyond the Scorpion Gate. - 90%

hells_unicorn, February 12th, 2009

They say never judge a book by its cover, but in the case of Destroy Destroy Destroy, it should be modified to never give up on the book even if the first chapter is less than stellar. Basically everything that was wrong with their original formula has been completely revamped, resulting in something that sounds a bit less Kalmah and actually a bit more like Rhapsody Of Fire, trading out the half-hearted piano interludes and stagnant riffs for some triumphant horn and string sounds that rival the over-the-top pomp heard on “In Sorte Diaboli” and a much more energized melding of power and thrash metal.

The band has definitely maintained the same woeful yet hateful character of chord progressions and keyboard ambiences as were heard on “Devour The Power”, but have made some much needed stylistic refinements and settled on a consistent blend of epic arrangement and thrash driven riffing. If you actually take out the super harsh vocal delivery, the keyboards, and simply focused on the guitar work you’d have something not all that dissimilar to Anthrax’s “State Of Euphoria”, with a little helping of Iced Earth’s “Night Of The Stormrider”. Pile on top of this some harmonic lead work with some Iron Maiden sensibilities and reintroduce the keys and the vocals and you have an aggressive melodic beating that rivals “Hatebreeder”.

Another change that comes welcome to this band’s format is the enhancing of the folk influences that only occasionally popped up in the debut. Though trumped by heavy symphonic tendencies, much of the melodic guitar work that accompanies verse and chorus sections definitely takes some cues from Ensiferum and Wintersun, perhaps a bit more from the latter in terms of character as most of these songs tend to sound colder and darker than the former’s heroic style. Thing do turn a bit more towards a lighter and gallant folk sound on “Agents Of Hypocrisy”, where the band employs acoustic guitars and keys to build an impressive epic intro before launching into a thrashy power metal blitz that runs parallel to much of the rest of the album.

But the strongest aspect of this album isn’t how multifaceted it happens to be, but also in how well organized it is and how unrelentingly wicked it comes across. For all of the ridiculousness in their lyrics, which actually surpass Children Of Bodom’s rather over-the-top pseudo prose, and the exaggerated harsh vocal delivery that almost reaches for Dani Filth territory, this album sounds musically like an epic concept album, minus perhaps the goofy drinking song at the end which makes “I’m The Man” sound like Shakespeare. From the glorious, “Lord Of The Rings” sounding prelude “The Second Coming” to the ending of the epic Ensiferum meets COB homage “Return To The Geishmal Undead”, everything just fits together like a jigsaw puzzle depicting a lone Viking standing tall in a frozen wasteland of slain soldiers.

There’s hardly a dull moment on here if you’re passion is speed and consonant harmonies, be it of a power metal or melodic death metal persuasion. In fact, this is something that might be able to appeal to fans of Immortal’s “Sons Of Northern Darkness”, though this isn’t really anywhere close to a black metal album even by the looser standards that said band began to adopt after “Blizzard Beasts”. If you like it extreme, check out “The Berserker’s Field Of Whores”, or if catchy is the name of your game, the mid-tempo power anthem “Born Of Thunder” is the way to go. But if you just want a song that kicks it into high gear, piles riffs and wicked primal shrieks on top of a truly epic and catchy fit of genius, check out the absolute highlight “Beyond The Scorpion Gate”. This is not just another COB clone, this is a band that has basically picked up where their chief influence left off on “Hate Crew Deathroll” and taken the sound to a newer place, one that is a hell of a lot more metal than what is being heard out of their Finnish counterparts in the past 4 years.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on February 12, 2009.

Built on Passion and Humour - 70%

Shirt_Guy, January 26th, 2009

If you’re going to be an American band heavily influenced by Children of Bodom, and power metal, you might as well do it right, and go over the top! It seems that even Destroy Destroy Destroy can even move forward (or perhaps capture a rising trend?) by also adding a hefty dose of folk metal to their keyboard laden, plastic sword attack.

“Battle Sluts” happens to be a well-done melding of all three of the previously mentioned genres, and while combining them isn’t actually that tough (since many folk metal bands evolved feither rom power metal or near Children of Bodom clones), it’s the passion, the catchiness, and the fact that the band takes nothing that they do seriously (which you can also feel) that makes it work. I mean, talk about Vikings to many other bands and fans, and that conversation can be about as serious as cancer. Wasn’t there supposed to be some glory involved in those historical battles, and isn’t creating modern music in tribute to those said vikings supposed to be enjoyable? Well that’s what Destroy Destroy Destroy do! Only in leather speedos!

Originally posted at www.waytooloud.com

cheesy metal fun - 85%

Lustmord56, January 26th, 2009

Review originally written for http://www.teethofthedivine.com by Erik Thomas

Its been 3 year since the debut, Devour the Power, and I knew just judging from the cover and the album title, that Tennessee’s purveyors of uber cheesy fantasy based metal was going to up the ante from the debut-and they do.

Cut from the same heavily bearded and classically inspired cloth as 3 Inches of Blood and Skeletonwitch, and with tongue planted firmly in cheek, DDD’s mix of thrash, power metal, heavy metal and melodic death metal is hardly groundbreaking, but for some reason, as with their two previously mentioned bands, throw in some heavy handed synths (far more so than the debut), and even some Viking chants/choirs then lyrics about vast battles, winged beasts, the undead and of course sluts of battle, and you can’t help but grin and throw the horns.

The orchestral epic “The Second Coming” signals the arrival of the sophomore record with a grandiose sense of pomp before “Battle Upon the Artic Plains” trots into view with a majestic power metal gait and war horns and closes with some rousing choirs. “The Scorpion Gate” gallops with a killer melodic urgency before and austere closing few moments complete with Lord Byron -ish spoken words. By this point, I’m hooked and the rest of the album is a grin inducing ride into cheese land, but I have to admit, musically the band appears to have grown into their themes, with a far more advanced grasp of melody and structure as “Realm of Ancient Shadows” and “Born of Thunder” shows-just damn good, mid paced, epic power/heavy metal songs by any standard, just with Bryan Kemp delivering harsh blackened rasps. Granted, the sense of almost Bal-Sagoth like pomp and Rhapsody (of Fire) level of cheese can be overbearing, especially for a US band on Black Market Activities, but DDD really seem to have grown into their chosen style and themes without it sounding too forced, or simply like a metalcore band playing power metal with fantasy lyrics. Heck, there’s even some well done female vocals that grace “The Winged Panther” and penultimate track “Return of the Geishmal Undead” , with more rousing chants is just downright epic. Oh, and be sure to stick around for the drunken beer song “Battle Slut Drinking Song” for a good laugh.

The gauntlet has been thrown to metal heads who will no doubt hate this lot simply based on their metalcore backbone, gimmicky image, thong clad front man and almost piss taking lyrics, but personally serious or not, Battle Sluts is a damn fun metal record that all metal heads should give a try.