Destruct delivers an absolute crusher of a debut LP following a couple recent, well-regarded demos. This CD contains 24 tracks from the Echoes Of Life LP, Promo Cassette and Human Failure Cassette. The sound is one that you know and are familiar with; Stoke-on-Trent, Scandanavia, and Japan, but it has been executed to its absolute maximum and captured with a clear and powerful recording. Huge, catchy riffs. Exacting rhythm. If you’re a fan of classic Japanese and Swedish hardcore you’ll love this, but more than an eloquent bit of paraphrase, Echoes of Life proves how powerful hardcore can be in the here and now. Recommended! 

Hailing from Richmond, VA, DESTRUCT sounds like an unfuckable great mix of BAST*RD, DEATH SIDE, JUDGEMENT, and FRAMTID. Imagine the aforementioned bands, blend and mold it back together, trim all the fat, and that’s Echoes of Life. DESTRUCT makes the international hardcore enthusiast dream a reality: if BAST*RD was a currently active band, still in their prime and releasing another great record in 2020. DESTRUCT accompolishes something DEATHREAT tried to accomplish 20 years ago with Consider It War, but perhaps an even better articulated version of the ’90s Japanese hardcore approach. Sounds like something that was recorded at Our House in Tokyo in the mid-’90s but was actually mastered at Enormous Door by Jack Control of WORLD BURNS TO DEATH, who is way too familiar with that type of production and nails it beyond perfection. This is no-frills, straight up devestating dark hardcore punk without having any gimmicks, macho-ness, or cosplay-ness, which is something many of us are looking for in the current punk scene that seems to have its head stuck up its ass or is way too concerned about what the next leading hip trend will be. One might criticize how much they can just listen to BAST*RD instead, but this perhaps is a great example of learning something from the past and creating something even better with it. Highly recommended. ( MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL #447 AUGUST 2020 ). 

1.  Wars of Attrition
2. Why Not Love
3. (Symbols of) Human Failure
4. Mutual Destruction
5. Cost of Progress
6. Insolent Death
7. Echoes of Life
8. Corrupt Dreams
9. Onward to Collapse
10. Drain
11. Love Fear
12. Inevitable
13. Once the War Started
14. Wars of Attrition
15. Human Failure
16. Mutual Destruction
17. Unpunished
18. Cost of Progress
19. Corrupt Dreams
20. Deny
21. Unpunished
22. Human Failure
23. Corrupt Dreams
24. Deny

Tracks 1-13 from Echoes of Life LP, released 2020.  
Tracks 14-20 from live cassette, released in 2019.
Tracks 21-24 from Human Failure demo cassette, released in 2018.