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Class 6(66)
Protector: A shedding of skin
29/11/10 || Habakuk
Introduction
We need more old school thrash reviews. Yes, and German to boot. Guess what you’ll be served here? That’s right, Watson. But there’s more to it! It’s actually German old school death/thrash. Yeah I know. That genre combination has been exercised to exhaustion, but back in ’91, these guys actually brought something new to the Kraut und Würschtl-filled table, and “A shedding of skin” until this day kicks most other band’s asses with sauce. Without a doubt, this album is the high point in Protector’s career, which I will simply assume you’re all familiar with. This is a metal site, so elitism is a must for me as omniscience is for you. I’m actually writing all this purely for myself. Ha ha.
Songwriting
9. The songwriting on “A shedding of skin” is flawless, apart from the pointless intro (birds…fucken birds.) and one interlude. Seamless shifts in speed and intensity connect ultra fast thrashing with bang-inducing slow and half-time sections. While other bands simpy tack riff after riff and call it a day, Protector managed to create a feel of natural progression throughout the whole album. Some songs came out more varied than others, but no song on here is subpar – which is not true for their other albums, I might add. Some highlights can be made out, though: The title track, “Thy will be done” and “Retribution in darkness”, to name just three.
Production
7. Production was done by Harris Johns, like on almost all self-respecting thrash album of the era. The dude knew what he was doing, and the band didn’t give him a hard time, being a three piece and all. We get a well-balanced mix, guitar and bass work well together, one treble-heavy and ripping, the other laying a rumbling foundation. The drums are reasonably punchy, but only when the sound is cranked up high enough, because obviously it’s all a bit quiet. Overall, a predictable, solid and enjoyable package.
Guitars
9. You’ll find some ungodly riffs on here, and Mr Wiebel sure was a tight and fast mofugger on his six-string. For some reason, he managed to sound more skilled than his fellows in the big four Teutonic thrash bands, and his meaty, aggressive riffing puts Kreator to shame at its best moments. “Thy will be done”‘s intro is a textbook example how to start a thrash song, and the nasty, chromatic chorus to “Whom gods destroy” shows how heads can be sent banging with the simplest of means – you just gotta find someone who actually writes that stuff. There’s neatly placed solos, too, but you’ll be better off finding someone else to dissect those. Slumlord. doesn’t. care.
Vocals
9. The obvious first step towards the “death” bit in their sound. I’d probably call this guttural thrash shouting, and it is miles above the yappy likes of Mille, Schmier and all the other squealers. Ace work, hands down.
Bass
8. Audible and following the guitar, mostly. As such, it’s elementary for the overall sound, but otherwise nothing that begs for an in-depth analysis. The guy doesn’t even list his surname in the booklet. Matze Shmatze.
Drums
… the drumming, on the other hand, is more interesting. Michael Hasse works the kit in full-on thrash fashion with really fast bass/snare alterations and no d-beats at all, but cuts the clutter with some tasty double-bass half-time sections, something that actually doesn’t happen too often in bands using an otherwise similar approach, like Wehrmacht, old Tankard or Exumer. I’m using these more obscure examples instead of, say, Sodom, whose drumming is much more punk-rooted in the first place, or Kreator, who obviously did use double bass – but it wasn’t really comparable to what’s happening here. Kreator’s sound uses double bass like a clean, surgical instrument, whereas with Protector, it sounds deeply embedded into the overall sound. It’s not so much used to accentuate (as in, for example, “Coma of souls”), but to propel the songs (see “Mortuary nightmare”/“Face fear”). Similar to, hmmm, death metal! And bam, we’re right where we wanted to get with this: death/thrash.
Lyrics
7. It’s like a German version of Sepultura’s fragmented style at times, and they’re clearly trying hard to produce something meaningful, they’re just not trying hard enough in their English class. The result is a prime example of German old school thrash lyrics. The hilarity in some of these lines just cannot be replicated.
Certain a nightmare
has you inprisioned you can not wake
terrible blackness
nothing at all to be seen
-
The people sleep, they don’t care
But the future’s made today
You and me, we’re the pilots
Fasten your seatbelts, we take off!!! (tri-p-p-ple exclamation mark!)
Cover art
7. A bog body that apparently was choked to death by a tree. Happens all the time, but the dead dude is wearing what looks like concentration camp inmates’ clothing, which makes that murderous act pretty despicable. Give the poor guy a fucken break!
Logo
4. I’ve cut my fingers more than once on this, trying to get a hold of the stupid pentagram.
Booklet
10. Lyrics and a band pic. Partly crimped because the previous owner apparently wiped his kitchen table with it. Actually, I just found that you can still make out his handwriting in a corner of one page, because he used it as a writing pad for transcribing the songtitles onto a fucken tape cover. How awesome is that?
Overall and ending rant
As you can tell from that last paragraph, I bought this used on eBay. I paid good money for it, but it was worth every cent. A unique landmark album in German thrash metal history – way ahead of its contemporaries and, despite showing signs of age, unmatched until today. Now finally in the Class6(66)-section where it should have been for a long time.
- Information
- Released: 1991
- Label: Major Records
- Website: Protector MySpace
- Band
- Olly Wiebel: vocals, guitars
- Matze: bass
- Michael Hasse: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Intro
- 02. Mortuary nightmare
- 03. A shedding of skin
- 04. Face fear
- 05. Retribution in darkness
- 06. Doomed to failure
- 07. Thy will be done
- 08. Whom gods destroy
- 09. Necropolis
- 10. Tantalus
- 11. Death comes soon
- 12. Unleashed Terror
- 13. Toward destruction (bonus)
