When you think of German thrash metal, you often think of the so called Teutonic trio, or big four to go a bit further. In fact Germany had a lot of great thrash bands of equal merit, even in current times. With the likes of Paradox, Protector were one of my favourite’s way back when. ‘A Shedding of Skin’ was their third full length also, originally hitting the market in 1991. Their debut album ‘Golem’ followed the brutal thrash with some death metal leanings flowing from the EP ‘Misanthropy’, whilst their follow up ‘Urn the Mad’ may have gotten more exposure, it was a touch lighter in its approach. ‘A Shedding of Skin’ thus was a total brutal assault, much like the heydays of Possessed.

Starting out eerie and typical of intros of the time, you get into the first track proper with ‘Mortuary Nightmare’. Boom, its savage death/thrash. The tempo, the aggression, the delivery, simply thrash masters doing what they do best. Fallen drummer Michael Hasse pounds the skins with accurate thunderous timekeeping which has all the variations that has made their way into modern day timekeeping. Olly Wiebel’s vocals varies with ease from a growl, to a scream, to everything that matches his guitar work and song arrangement. ‘Face Fear’ has a great rolling intro of freight train feel, and increases in speed as the vocals start. The sound effects and slower sections generate atmosphere and a dank and evil depiction of the song, accompanying the lyrics. The guitars are sometimes in harmony, and double tracked of course, they are simply awesome. It’s been a while since I spun this record, it’s a welcome return for sure. ‘Doomed to Failure’ starts like more conventional bay area thrash outing, I suppose with the brutal vocal, akin to modern Testament. I know we sometimes like comparisons. But I would also suggest some early Death material. The primitive nature is capture on the slower sections of the chorus, ah, then we get going as we know these guys will. ‘Whom God Destroys’ has a real bite and hook to the start. Riff-tastic I would say! You guessed it, the speed increases when the vocal begin. You might note some crunchy slower bits also, I like the effect of the crash symbols during this part. Considering what I mentioned about the previous studio album earlier, it’s certainly a smack in the face.

Of course, this may be a re-issue, but of recent times, Protector are still active and have releases some great albums. Check out the last three which were actually released over a period of nine years, maybe not so recent eh! So, if I have to sum up ‘A Shredding of Skin’, it’s by far my favourite of their early material, it’s savage thrash metal with a deadly side and judging by the fact that this is the fourth re-press (LP) and second re-press (CD), its clearly highly in demand. It comes with unseen photos from around the time of the original release and a nice poster. It’s a definite recommendation for one of the highlights of a completely underrated German thrash trio.

(9/10 Paul Maddison)

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