Spiritual Genocide

Destruction began in 1982 with Schmier, Mike Sifringer and drummer Tommy Sandmann, and Spiritual Genocide was the album for their thirtieth year. Behind the kit was Vaaver, who had joined two years earlier. Schmier credited the new drummer with opening up fresh possibilities and said the band had never played with this much speed and aggression while keeping a groove. The record opens with "Exordium", an instrumental of about a minute. It was recorded at Gernhart Studios in Troisdorf, Germany, with engineer Martin Buchwalter, and Schmier handed the mix to Andy Classen, trusting him with a raw and brutal sound. The credits go into more detail: drums and vocals at Gernhart, guitars and bass at Hail the Leaf Studio in Weil am Rhein, and mixing and mastering at Stage One Studios. The guest list reaches back into the band's own history. Two old companions, Andreas "Gerre" Geremia of Tankard and Tom Angelripper of Sodom, sing on "Legacy of the Past", and Ol Drake of Evile adds a few solos. The line-up of the Mad Butcher and Release from Agony years also reunited for one song: guitarist Harry Wilkens and drummer Oliver Kaiser play on a second version of "Carnivore" that went onto the limited digipak. The Mad Butcher himself returned to the cover, painted once more by the Hungarian artist Gyula Havancsák. Nuclear Blast released the album on 23 November 2012, and the Japanese edition followed five days later.