DESTRUCTION's SCHMIER: 'A.I. Music Is Basically Stolen Because Everything They Do Is To Take The Source, Which Is Original Music'

In an interview with "Rock Talk", the newly launched podcast from longtime Serbian hard rock/heavy metal journalist Jadranka Janković Nešić, bassist/vocalist Schmier of German thrash metal veterans DESTRUCTION spoke about why he and his bandmates still like putting out full-length albums at a time when so many mainstream music artists primarily focus on releasing singles. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's important also that the cover matches with the style and the lyrics. A lot of the modern heavy metal bands nowadays, their covers are... They don't look like heavy metal anymore. I still like when I see an album, I said, 'Okay, this must be power metal. This must be thrash metal. This must be black metal.' The identification of an album is the cover, and it should express the lyrics and the feel of the record, and I think it's still important."

After Jadranka noted that DESTRUCTION has "always" had "good covers and good videos", Schmier concurred. "Yeah, yeah. We've always been working with good artists," he said. "And now we're coming to the age of A.I. [artificial intelligence], which is all gonna change, where A.I. can now create good covers for everybody or... I mean, good covers, but it can create for sure stuff that is good enough. And a lot of bands are using A.I., artists already, or artists using A.I. And I think for me, I like to still support real artists. For DESTRUCTION, we still work with a real artist that paints the stuff and fulfills your real ideas, the way you want them. But also this will change in the future, I guess."

Asked if he would ever consider using A.I. to create new DESTRUCTION music, Schmier said: "No. A.I. music is basically stolen because everything they do is to take the source, which is original music. They don't pay the artist, and they take the original pieces and put new pieces together, and it's completely stolen and the original artist gets nothing for it. So if you go and create an A.I. song about DESTRUCTION, A.I. will 100% use parts of our songs to create a new song and not pay us, and that's not okay."

This past spring, DESTRUCTION supported TESTAMENT on the U.S. leg of the San Francisco Bay Area thrashers' "Thrash Of The Titans" world tour. The trek, which launched in March, featured additional support from fellow thrash legends OVERKILL.

DESTRUCTION's 16th studio album, "Birth Of Malice", was released in March 2025 via Napalm Records.

Schmier is joined in DESTRUCTION's current lineup by guitarists Damir Eskić and Martin Furia, along with drummer Randy Black.

"Birth Of Malice" was recorded at Switzerland's Little Creek Studio by V.O. Pulver. Furia mixed and mastered the LP at The Black Mancave in Hannover, Germany.

DESTRUCTION's massive career has seen many successes, with the band hitting stages at the world's biggest festivals around the world like Hellfest, Wacken Open Air, Graspop Metal Meeting and México Metal Fest.

In August 2021, DESTRUCTION officially parted ways with founding guitarist Mike Sifringer and replaced him with Furia.