Setting the French metal scene on fire and leaving stages in ashes is none other than the almighty hellfire that is Destrukt! They were kind enough to give us this extensive interview so check out what they had to say!

TheNwothm: Hey there Destrukt I hope you are well! Can you tell us who is in the band and
where you are from?

D: Hi Rob, all good thank you. Let me introduce the current line up as of today. We have Deathripper on drums joined 2016, Krossbones on bass joined 2021, Athéna on vocals joined 2022, Odysseus on lead guitar joined 2024 and me Karburator who founded the band. We all come from Grand Est in the northeast of France.

TheNwothm: You formed back in 2014! What do you remember from those days when your
first met, jammed together and put together the band? And how was your name chosen?

D: Well, back then I was playing in other bands, death and black metal in Germany and France, but I
was looking to have a project on my own, where I could song write. I teamed up with an old friend
from my native town, explained to him that we could play some speed/thrash metal in the vein of
early 80s Californian bands that everybody knows. He went all-in and we started to jam. Pretty
quickly we managed to write 3 or 4 songs, Broken Mirror is one of them. Initially we wanted to
name the band Hounds of Steel, but we weren’t completely convinced. So, funny thing, I
proceeded to vote. I proposed a list of a dozen of names to a selected list of trusted people and
Destrukt, “Destrükt” back then was baptized.

TheNwothm: From what I understand you are from Thionville, Grand Est in France! From
the pictures I have seen it looks like it has a lot of culture and history! Can you tell us about
the area? And what affect it has had on you all as musicians?

D: We live close by Metz which is IMO one of the most beautiful towns in France, with a lot of history, either German or French. The town keeps its late medieval roots thanks to its gothic architecture. Except Athéna who’s from a bigger City, Strasbourg, we all lived in the countryside, so we have surely a different eye on nightlife and stuff.

TheNwothm: Currently who are your favourite nwothm/speed bands from France that
everyone should be looking out for ?

D: Herzel, Meurtieres and Dunwich Ritual are no doubt the Avant-garde of the new French
heavy/speed metal scene IMO. But we have many others, like Animalize, Lords Gallery, Nemedian
Chronicles, to name a few; they are all worth listening to.

TheNwothm: So thinking about the music of the band would you say the themes are
influenced by modern day topics or more French history and culture?

D: Our lyric themes are not related to history nor French culture. This is more about dark storytelling and fantasy narrative.

TheNwothm: What can you tell us about that debut you released back in 2016? How did
you go about getting the songs together and did it turn out the way you wanted it to?

D: The first demo “Hounds of Steel” was a compilation of the tracks we wrote back in 2015, and we added the vox from our first singer D. Krossfire. Her vocals truly seed the vision I would
have for the band’s future, even if she eventually did not stay in the band.

TheNwothm: It is always exciting getting your first demo recorded! Do you feel the DIY
approach is still strong today and more bands are choosing that path rather than looking
towards labels etc?

D: DIY is stronger than ever, esp. with streaming platforms and stuff. We did lots of things on our own at the beginning, I drew the artwork of the first demo back in 2016 for example and we recorded everything on our own. But to be honest, nothing will replace professionals if you want to go further in the scene. As a musician, physical release and playing at festivals are the best
accomplishments you can have, much more than having thousands of virtual followers.

TheNwothm: You chose to put out a live album before your first full length album! What
made you to do this and not the other way around? And how did fans react to the live
album?

D: It was simply our first live appearance, and it turned out that the sound guy recorded the concert. We had still no label back then, so we decided to release something on our own before making a proper record.

TheNwothm: What can you tell our readers about yourselves? Do you all have any
particular interests? You also all seem to be pretty stylish, so where do your influences for
that come from?

D: I guess we have also all in common a sense for aesthetics and attention to detail, and this is
reflected also in the way we work in the band. We are all different ages, I’m over 40, the others are
in their mid twenties/thirties, so we have all different interests, although of course metal is a
common ground. We hang around in festivals together. Deathripper and Krossbones being
brothers, they have hobbies in common, collecting brown jackets being one of them (lol). Athena is
a D&D, literature and movie enthusiast, but she is also active in the scene as a promoter.
Odysseus our lead guitarist is a professional musician, aside Destrukt, he’s playing in a hard rock
band called the Nucleons Project but does also his own stuff as Uly.

TheNwothm: For a bit of fun if you could go back in time and step into the shoes of any
music who would it be and why?

D: When I compose stuff, actually I use to step into the shoes of a musician in the early 80s, not
knowing what would come next in music, and I try to figure out what kind of influences this guy had
to deal with to output all these speed, thrash metal classics from the mid 80s. It resulted to me that
I dig into the proto-metal or hard rock bands like Sabbath, Dust, or Sir Lord Baltimore but of course
the early Priest and Maiden albums as well. If you look for the authenticity in your riffing, without
sounding too much like one or the other, you must rewind back then and ignore all the other stuff to get a pure main root. Then, and it’s important, mix it with different styles of metal, which can be in my case, Doom, classic thrash, US metal and even some 90s black metal.

TheNwothm: I see you guys are with Woven Hoof Records! They make some awesome
patches many of which I own myself! How did the partnership come about?

D: I think it happened at Keep it True Rising 2, where one of the guys from WHR got introduced to the band’s new line-up. Some months later we made our stage comeback, and he could listen to our recent stuff. As they wanted to start a mini-label with bundle tape/patch or CD patch, he proposed we work with him on our next release. WHR was the best place to get a patch properly done, and it turned out amazing.

TheNwothm: So let us talk about the debut album “Unleash the Destruktors” from 2018!
Can you tell us about the tracks on the album and how the writing and recording sessions
went? Did you have a clear direction on the way you wanted the album to go?

D: Unleash the Destruktors is short in playtime, 28 minutes if I remember well. It consisted mostly ofour early materials, composed with the first drummer between 2014 and 2016 and some of the first songs composed with Deathripper. We recorded in an orchestra room with Fabien Cruzille, a
sound engineer from Nancy, who I already worked with on previous projects. Fabien is a pro,
perfectionist, very chill guy to work with. The sound direction was rather classic thrash with a
contemporary touch in the mix. It underlined the voice from our singer Tetanoizer back then, cavernous and harsh tone. It gave the band a different direction from where I wanted the songs to go, but the twist was surprisingly good, so we went all-in.

TheNwothm: I usually ask this question about a certain release but what can you tell our
readers about the artworks of the band? You some pretty epic ideas going on!

D: On the first album, we gave a clear vision of what we wanted to have. It turned out well, even
though it forced the artist out of his comfort zone. If you want something epic and crazy good, I
think the best approach is to leave carte blanche to the artist. You just must choose her/him
according to the style and artistic direction you want to go. Regarding “The Ascent” we choose
Flamberge Illustrations, as she worked with epic bands already. We just told her some keywords
and let her listen to the songs so she could get inspired. This is how it turned out.

TheNwothm: Can you guys highlight some of your favourite tracks from your other releases
and which ones would you particularly highlight to fans?

D: From the first album, check out Headshot and Metal Destruktor, very solid thrash songs.
From the first EP “Wicked Night Killers”, check out the title song, there’s an epic guest solo from
K.K Ripper from Bütcher, worth listens, also Down Under Blues, which is an exotic track, I still do
enjoy it. We have also released on bandcamp a compilation of later works with our third singer “Steel and Destruktion”. This is demo crappy sound, but you should check out Wheeping Hell on this one.

TheNwothm: Last year you celebrated the release of your EP “The Ascent.” How does this
compare to what you have released before and do you feel there is a lot of evolution in the
music?

D: This is incomparable to our early works. With the arrival of Athena and the addition of a second
guitar in the band, we took a completely different direction. Actually, we corrected the trajectory I
initially intended to take back in 2016, though, we polished the style into heavy-speed epic metal.
We like to joke on using the antonym Speed Doom to qualify our music at best.

TheNwothm: Speaking about shows what live dates have you got planned for the rest of the
year?

D: We are currently writing some new material, so we leave the live in hiatus for some months.
Coming fall/winter we will go back on stage for a few dates, I can’t tell you more about sorry.

TheNwothm: What is next musically for the band?

D: We will re-release The Ascent as an extended version in CD and LP, with 3 or 4 bonus tracks
which will be then considered as a full-length album. In 2025, we will record a completely new
album with the newest material we are working on.

TheNwothm: Where can bands buy your music and merch?

Bandcamp: http://destrukt1.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/speedthrashdestrukt/

TheNwothm: Anything else you would like to mention?

D: We have big stuff coming up and we are all very excited about, stay alert on our socials! Thank you for your support and interest and all the best!