Stephen After the return of original singer/bassist Marcel Schirmer to Destruction's camp and released "All Hell Breaks Loose" in 2000, attention began to diverted to the band but not until they released "The Antichrist" in 2001 that fans really admitted that Destruction was back in form again. Beside a destructive classic thrash groove found inside, check out the blazing skull on the front sleeve, could have been the coolest cover of the year. With rave reviews everywhere and looks like a comeback masterpiece, "The Antichrist" in my opinion, falls hard on the imbalanced songs composition even though most of the songs are spectacular.

The first half of the album is much better than the second with the first four tracks are really a brilliant thrash definition. After the typical thrashcoustical intro, Destruction started abusing their instruments with flaming riffs on "Thrash Till Death" and Vormann's notable powerful drummings is clearly the song's highlight. "Nailed To The Cross" on the other hand, showed the vocal mastery of Schirmer, furiously screaming out its superb chorus. "Dictators of Cruelty" and "Bullets From Hell" displayed an aggressive rhythm and alternately pushed Schirmer's vocal and Vormann's brutal beats to the front. Sifringer's guitar actually launched some insane riffs, but most of the time, he sounded predictable and some riffs are quite decent.

Tracks like "Meet Your Destiny", "Godfather of Slander", or "Let Your Mind Rot" are examples of the weaker parts of "The Antichrist". His solos aren't very memorable and outstanding either. My most fave part of the second half is "Creations of The Underworld", I really think it has a beautiful riffage pattern and definitely a great track to love. The production is crisp and very good but to rate this as unbeatable is way too much, I guess 3.5 stars is deserved for a good release like this, especially to quench the thirst for long-time Destruction and Teutonic thrash fans.