Destroy Destroy Destroy (hereby DDD), are back with their second effort after their debut Devour the Power, which got a lot of great reviews and just as many bad ones. They seemed to be a love/hate-band back then although I don’t see what is so bad about them. I enjoyed their debut a lot, and was certainly looking forward to this, their latest outing Battle Sluts. Spawned from Nashville, Tennessee, you may expect some southern-fried groove ala Pantera or Corrosion of Conformity. Reset, erase your expectations, and prepare for something completely different. DDD is hardly inventive at all, and play a mix of thrash, power, and melodic death metal that is most comparable to old Children of Bodom, Wintersun, Ensiferum and the likes. As much as it may sound like one, this is not a complete rip-off though, as they have their tongue firmly placed in cheek, doing what they like, and most of all having some great fun.

My first impression as that this was a little more grandiose and maybe a little less blistering in terms of song-writing. The symphonic keys are clearly dominating at the brink of exhaustion, however, they know their restriction and they sound deliberate enough without ever really taking over the whole sound picture. The majestic intro piece The Second Coming flows into the giant fist-pumping Battle Upon the Arctic Plains. The orchestral bits and pieces are so huge that they almost remind me a little of Summoning, just not crucially penetrating the musical picture. On the main part of the song, the keys stay in the background and are rather backing up the riffs with thrilling sounds instead of swallowing the whole thing which shows that these guys at least know how to balance things. When I listen to cuts like The Winged Panther I always imagine a huge battlefield and clashing warriors. Even though the music is pretty straight-forward, they manage to create the engagement that will keep you interested through the whole record.

The guitar-work and the interaction with the drums is very good. The forever furious blasting of Brian Shorter defines every galloping strike on the six-strings. This is fast and fun, and fast music requires competent musicians. Not hard to find as the dark and catchy melodies and the swift touch of an epic thunderstorm cracks the sky. Battle Sluts rages by with enormous intensity, kicking ass and taking names, never letting up on its furious plunder. Every song contains that desired touch of melody mixed with the lovely aggressiveness of Bryan Kemp’s rough screams and Brian Shorters truly excellent machinegun-blasts. The only trouble I have with the vocals, is when Kemp tries the deeper growls, almost grunts, and comes of pretty lackluster and bland. It’s awesome when a band that seems pretty simple comes off as something really enjoyable.

Children of Bodom and Wintersun has been mentioned as obvious influences here. However, the folk-y parts are reminiscent of both Bal-Sagoth and Equilibrium. Towards the end here, like on the glorious finisher Return of the Geishmal Undead shows a great sense of song-writing when combining more mid-paced stuff with mighty clean and operatic vocals to throw in some variation. They also include a whole bunch of mercenaries to handle gang shouts, additional keyboards, and even some very fitting female vocals on The Winged Panther. Actually, there isn’t much that doesn’t fit except the ridiculous finisher Battle Sluts Drinking Song. It would’ve been cool if it lasted two minutes shorter, and is actually pretty fun until you grow utterly tired of men who have had way too many beers singing about themselves.

All in all, this is just as enjoyable as their previous effort, although I may prefer this as of now. It’s a solid, cheesy and damn enjoyable power/death metal album that grabs you at the first spin. This will most certainly get the same reception as their debut, as there obviously some people that can’t handle neither the band nor the music. Too bad for them though, they’re missing out on something.