Three decades of digging themselves deeper and deeper into the underground, German black/thrash metallic maestros Desaster have resurfaced with their tenth studio album, Kill All Idols. This murderous musical manifesto fuses the sonic fury and philosophical venom of the old-school into a package fit for old-timers and noobs alike. Kill All Idols arrives four years after Churches Without Saints, and while the wait may have tested the patience of longtime diehards, rest assured: Kill All Idols is their most ferocious and diverse work yet. Now, don’t let the word ‘diverse’ fool you; this isn’t an underground metal effort aimed at DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion). The diversity found here has more to do with the band incorporating many of the staple elements found across their stellar back catalogue. Of course, you have the blackened thrash attacks and sweeping epic passages of yore. This time around, there is definitely more focus on allowing their punk roots to shine through louder and clearer than ever before, giving Kill All Idols a renewed sense of energy… an energy that is chock full of aggressive, fast, and epic chaos.

Like the universe that spawned them, the act of chaos is sacred territory for Desaster, and it pulses through the album’s molten core, not unlike the chaos required to form massive, hulking suns and planets. The title Kill All Idols doubles as a scathing rejection of societal role models — political, religious, and capitalist — and an invitation to independent thought. Those so-called ‘role models’ that are shoved down our throats through every social and online interaction only have their own power in mind. The album is about tearing that down, or at least opening the listener’s mind to the idea of rejecting that poison. It’s a loaded message for a record written and tracked with the spontaneity of a live ritual.

Recorded in the band’s rehearsal space with their longtime live sound engineer Jan “Janosch” Gensheimer, and mixed/mastered by Greg Wilkinson (Autopsy) at Earhammer Studio in Oakland, Kill All Idols is raw yet precise, unfiltered yet masterfully executed. The album’s first single, ‘Towards Oblivion’ is a masterclass of apocalyptic energy and thematic depth. Originally conjured as a speed metal anthem for members of their fan club (that goes by the fitting moniker of ‘Stormbringers’), the track evolved into something far uglier and more prophetic. At its core, the track praises mankind’s suicidal arrogance and the utterly ridiculous idea that we humans will be the undoing of our home, Earth, when the reality is that we’re only making it uninhabitable for ourselves. It’s an absolute monster of a track on an album stacked with hate-filled riffs, vertigo-inducing blast beats, and harrowing wails.

Yet despite the extremity, there’s an underlying defiance to the album, one that recalls the triumphant battle cries of history’s most ferocious warriors fighting for their freedom and very existence in a world full of madness and greed. Desaster has proven themselves, time and again, that they never bow to trends, never compromise, and, much like those long-dead warriors, have stood their ground in the battlefield of trends, bloodied but unbroken, wielding riffs like swords and conviction like armor. With Kill All Idols now in their arsenal, they’ve carved their place into 2025’s extreme metal pantheon with one of the year’s most uncompromising and victorious releases.

Release Date: August 22nd, 2025
Metal Blade Records
Reviewed By: Jason Deaville 
Review Score: 8.5