Artist: Desaster
Country: Germany
Label: Self-Released
Formats: 7″ EP
Year: 2026
It has now become a non-time-bound tradition for Desaster to join forces with their own ‘Stormbringers’ fan club and the local metal collective Hellbangers Moselfranken to release a 7″ single. We’ve previously had the chance to snap up the singles ‘Black Celebration’ (2019) and ‘Here Lies Desaster’ (2022), and now the time has come for ‘Towards Oblivion’, which was released earlier this year.
On the A-side of the single is the title track, ‘Towards Oblivion’ which was already available as the third track of the band’s last full-length album, ‘Kill All Idols’ that was released last summer via Metal Blade Records. As far as I was able to hear and find out, this is just the exact same version that was recorded by Janosch Gensheimer and mixed and mastered by Greg Wilkinson. I expect that everyone reading this already has the album in their collection, or has at least listened to it a few times. If not: your loss, but you can at least rest assured that ‘Towards Oblivion’ fits seamlessly with the slightly more melodic direction Desaster has been taking in recent years. In any case, it’s a track that serves as an excellent example of what ‘Kill All Idols’ has to offer.
The other side of this 45-RPM’er is slightly more interesting, at least for those of you who are die-hard Desaster fans. ‘Stormbringer’s Attack’ is a song that is exclusively available on this 7” single and that alone warrants the purchase of this little piece of vinyl. I’m not entirely sure of the exact line-up for this track, but one thing is absolutely clear: Infernal, the only remaining original member, is very much in the lead here. Whereas Sataniac usually provides the roaring vocals, here it is Infernal himself who takes the front seat. Musically speaking, this means the needle swings firmly back towards the band’s earlier Black/Thrash Metal days. Fans of the band’s older work will be chuffed to bits with this; the much sharper guitar sound, the cracking up-tempo rhythms and Infernal’s more screeching vocals bring the old days back to life. You can add the rougher recording quality, recorded in the rehearsal room and mixed and mastered by Infernal, to really transport you back to the mid-90s.
