Review by Felix on August 31, 2022.

The brand new Protector album is a killer, that’s for sure, and maybe it is a good occasion to look back on the first official release of the once completely German formation. Certainly, one cannot compare “Misanthropy” with “Excessive Outburst of Depravity”, but one can put it in a row with other thrashing EPs from the eighties. “Misanthropy” has more compositional substance than Warrant’s “First Strike”, it sounds much more professional than Sodom’s “In the Sign of Evil” and it does not reveal rhythmic problems that made the closer on Destruction’s “Sentence of Death” to something, well, special. Of course, the EP lacks the charm of the imperfect which was Sodom’s greatest advantage in their early days. Anyway, “Misanthropy” makes its statement loud and clear.

Protector came with an EP under their arm that showed an amazing level of technical precision and compositional maturity. In particular the vicious riffing of “Holy Inquisition” illustrates that Protector realized the importance of diabolic catchiness very quickly. The band did not wallow in rumbling, typical Teutonic sounds. The Bay Area delivered the sonic frame, but Protector added a pretty somber touch. Thus, we have a lot of tempo changes, dynamic and variable drumming and we enjoy the expressiveness of the mostly homicidal guitars. Okay, every now and then a part is going nowhere, for example the high-velocity instrumental section of “Agoraphobia” and “Holocaust” plays the typical mediocre closer. But the good sections dominate, for example the chorus part of “The Mercenary” with its intensive double bass support.

Protector’s debut was the first release of the then new Atom H Records label. It was produced by the band itself. Given this situation, one might think that the sound sucks… totally wrong, dudes! The six tracks – let’s forget the irrelevant intro – boast with a clear, sharp and evil mix. Maybe the musicians benefited from their “isolation”. Wolfsburg is no part of the Ruhrpott region, where the German thrash movement made its first moves. Was this the reason why this EP sounds pretty autonomous? Protector could not be confused with Kreator, Tankard or Sodom. Probably Andy Classen loved them, because their approach was not far away from the one of Holy Moses. But it goes without saying that Martin Missy did not follow the style of Sabina. His voice does not sound like the totally individual one of a woman with larynx cancer, but like the typical one of an ordinary male thrash vocalist: raw, somewhat dangeous and fortunately not overly interested in harmonies. It does not matter. Missy delivers no crucial feature, but his performance is convincing. So let’s sum up. Maybe you want to listen to the omega (“Excessive Outburst…”) and the alpha (“Misanthropy”) of Protector? Guess there are many options to spend your time less good.

Rating: 7.3 out of 10