Inventor of Evil

Destruction had released three albums in a row on Nuclear Blast, up to Metal Discharge in 2003, and this one came out on AFM Records. They recorded it with Peter Tägtgren, V.O. Pulver of Gurd and their live engineer Franky Winkelmann at House of Music Studios in Winterbach, Germany, and Little Creek Studio in Gelterkinden, Switzerland. Tägtgren mixed it at Abyss Studios in Sweden, and the production credit went to the band itself. Schmier played bass and sang, with Mike Sifringer on guitar and Marc Reign on drums. "The Alliance of Hellhoundz", the third track, brought in nine guest singers: Biff Byford of Saxon, Doro Pesch, Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir, Björn "Speed" Strid of Soilwork, the former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di'Anno, Messiah Marcolin of Candlemass, Mark Osegueda of Death Angel, Peter "Peavy" Wagner of Rage and Tägtgren himself. Before the release Schmier predicted the song would "make metal history". Ferdy Doernberg, Harry Wilkens and Pulver shared its guitar solos, and Wilkens, the guitarist on Cracked Brain, also played solos on "The Chosen Ones" and "Seeds of Hate". André Grieder, who had sung on Cracked Brain, added vocals to "Seeds of Hate", and Gyula Havancsák painted the cover. AFM Records released the album in Europe on 22 August 2005; King Records followed in Japan two days later, on 24 August, with South America on 30 September and Candlelight Records in North America on 25 October. It spent one week in the German album chart at number 68. The limited edition added a cover of Motörhead's "We Are the Road Crew", a version of "The Alliance of Hellhoundz" with Schmier singing alone and some studio footage, while the Japanese edition added "Eternal Ban", re-recorded in 2005, and a karaoke version of "The Alliance of Hellhoundz".