Metal Discharge

Marc Reign replaced Sven Vormann on drums in 2001. Ahead of the next album, in an interview on the band's website, bassist and singer Schmier said Destruction would go into the studio around March or April 2003 for a September release, and that this time they would produce it themselves: Peter Tägtgren had done a great job on The Antichrist, but it was time to look for a new challenge. He also praised the new drummer's fast feet and promised that "Oldschool will be Newschool". The album was recorded and mastered at Little Creek Studio in Gelterkinden, Switzerland, and produced by the band with V.O. Pulver of Gurd. Pulver and Franky Winkelmann, later named as the band's live engineer, mixed and engineered it, and Pulver also plays the second guitar solo in "The Ravenous Beast". Among the backing singers was André Grieder, who had sung Cracked Brain. The band itself was Schmier, guitarist Mike Sifringer and Reign. Nuclear Blast released the album in Germany on 22 September 2003, and the first run came with a limited bonus CD of demos, covers and an unreleased version of "Bestial Invasion". That disc holds covers of Iron Maiden's "Killers", Metallica's "Whiplash" and The Exploited's "U.S.A.", and four demos made between 1999 and 2003. Before the release, a video for "Desecrators of the New Age" went up on the band's website. The Japanese edition followed on 26 September with "Killers" and the four demos added, and the North American release on 21 October.