The Destroyer

Alec Empire | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 22, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Wea Corp
• ASIN: B000009NUY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #531,099 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hardcore!, September 9, 2000

By 

todeskampf (Vincennes, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Destroyer (Audio CD)

A lot of people who dislike Alec's main band, Atari Teenage Riot, tend to shy away from his solo stuff, thinking that it will sound the same. the truth is, the two are entirely different from each other.

Alec's stuff is creatively genius drum and bass chaos. it is very complex and often goes into sharp and abrupt changes from chaos to silence and back to chaos again.

some highlights are the songs FIREBOMBING, HARD LIKE IT'S A POSE, and PLEASURE IS OUR BUSINESS.

i personally detest ATR, but that did not stop me from thoroughly enjoying this album. i definitely recommend this album. this isn't just drum and bass. this is pure chaos straight from the mind of Alec Empire.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Harsh, digital distortion with manic beats. What's not to like?, April 20, 2008

By 

Steward Willons (Illinois) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Destroyer (Audio CD)

My introduction to Alec Empire and Digital Hardcore aesthetic was through Atari Teenage Riot. Since I'm a fan of the latter, I decided to check out Empire's solo stuff. Since I'm guessing a lot of potential listeners were similarly introduced to his music through ATR, I'll start off with some comparisons. The familiar distortion covers everything and is, at times, even more aggressive than ATR typical sound, if you can imagine such a thing. The song tempos are varied, unlike ATR's approach - fast and faster. There are manic jungle beats, pummeling gabber, and even some slower breakbeats. The biggest difference is the lack of guitar and vocals.

I get the feeling Empire is to ATR as Liam Howlett is to the Prodigy - he writes and programs the tracks while the band mates show up and contribute screaming vocals. His compositional direction doesn't seem all that much different. But the interesting thing is, as superfluous as his band mates may be, there is a difference in that on a song-to-song basis, ATR tracks tend to have real personality, whereas Empire's work on this CD tends to sound monochromatic when you listen to it straight through.

Part of it might be the lack of a central theme. With ATR, we have things like revolution, dissent, angst, and speed that form the bulk of the thematic material. Of course they're not original themes, but they ARE effective. Moreover, they tend to cohere into individual songs more easily than Alec's solo material, on this album at least. Maybe I miss the guitar. Maybe I like the vocals better than the samples that seem to replace them here.

Whatever the issue is, I guess I prefer ATR to Empire solo. It seems like there's more variety, in a strange way. I enjoy dipping into The Destroyer for one or two tracks at a time, but on the occasions that I've listened to the whole CD in one sitting, my ears got fatigued and things started to blend together. They didn't fatigued because of the noise. I listen to Merzbow all the time. It was entirely because everything ended up being too similar.

Maybe I'm being too critical here. I would still recommend all ATR fans check this out. It's very brutal and as far as harsh digital distortion with beats goes, Alec Empire is the man. From what I understand, this compilation gives a nice overview of his prolific solo career. I think if I was to buy another CD, it would probably be a proper album as there is sure to be more variance. Incidentally, if anyone has recommendations, please leave me a comment.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard like it's supposed to be!, August 14, 2000

By 

Hans Bruntt (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Destroyer (Audio CD)

This is the American release of one of the first and best Digital Hardcore (DHR) releases (with three 'new' tracks, that are _almost_ identical to the tracks from the European release 'Squeeze the trigger'). Alec Empire is the master of distorted riot beats and if I could keep only one A. Empire CD - this would definitely be it! I see AE's music as a definite attack on the completely dull drum and bass that (especially around 1994- Roni Size, Goldie, etc) is still making so many people fall asleep everywhere. Get 'the destroyer' and you'll never sleep again!