Diogenes Like clockwork, German thrash metal kings Kreator are back with another slab of Teutonic metal for the masses. While their latest album, Phantom Antichrist, breaks a streak of album covers with malignant and disfigured faces on them (sort of; the dude’s pretty ugly, but it’s not an extreme close-up), the music features no such dip in quality. Of course it’s good!

Phantom Antichrist continues to develop the well-balanced, clean, and melodic thrash metal sound Kreator first adopted on their 2001 “revival” album, Violent Revolution. While there isn’t anything as melodic as, say, “To the After Burn,” Phantom Antichrist is not short on slick guitar harmonies, and they’re beautifully blended with the band’s trademark aggression and Mille Petrozza’s raspy vocals to form the modern Kreator style we know and love. Indeed, if you’ve heard the band’s past few efforts, there’s probably not much on this album that will surprise you, but that tends to fall by the wayside when the music is as tight and well-produced as it is here.

Frontman Petrozza has mentioned that Kreator went into the writing of Phantom Antichrist wanting to make their greatest album ever; while their landmark albums of the ‘80s will probably never be topped, it’s obvious that a lot of effort went into this. The transitions within the songs are absolutely sublime, as tracks like “Civilization Collapse” and “Until Our Paths Cross Again” trade melody for aggression so seamlessly that you actually have to, you know, pay attention to the music! There’s also a definite sense of urgency in the band’s playing, almost as if they know it’s their last album or that the world is ending this December (who actually believes this?) and they want to put one more solid notch in the thrash totem before they go out. This, again, goes back to the care put into Phantom Antichrist; just listen to the climax of “The Few, The Proud, The Broken” and tell me you don’t just feel every note in that anthemic guitar lead. Kreator have never been a band to mail in a performance (even when they didn’t really know what they wanted to play in the ‘90s), so this isn’t necessarily anything new, but they really hit the songwriting nail on the head this time around. The only thing on this album that I could definitely do without is the addition of clean vocals; for all his greatness as a harsh vocalist, Petrozza ain’t that good of a singer (at least, not anymore-who knows if he could have pulled it off 15 years ago), and the way they’re used seems awfully In Flames-ish. Please, keep the mumbling out of my thrash metal!

Thirteen albums into their career, Kreator shows that they can still bring it with the same intensity as their peers, even after going through enough sonic changes to put most other bands down for the count. I’d be lying if I said Phantom Antichrist is anything groundbreaking or surprising, but at the same time, it’s highly professional and executed well enough to appeal to almost anyone with ears. It should shock no one that this album is recommended, and will probably go down as one of the top thrash releases of the year.

UMUR "Out of the Dark... Into the Light" is an EP release by German thrash metal act Kreator. The EP was released through Noise Records in August 1988 and bridges the gap between the two full-length studio albums "Terrible Certainty (1987)" and "Extreme Aggression (1989)". The original vinyl version features 5 tracks while the European CD version includes 3 additional bonus tracks.

The first track on the EP is "Impossible to Cure", which at the time was a new original track by the band, and if you are familiar with the material on "Terrible Certainty (1987)" and "Extreme Aggression (1989)" you probably won´t be surprised by the aggressive teutonic thrash metal style featured on the track. It´s short, aggressive and effective. "Impossible to Cure" is followed by "Lambs to the Slaughter" which is a Raven cover track. It´s slightly more melodic but still pretty aggressive and it´s certainly delivered with fierce conviction.

The remaining tracks on the EP (including the 3 bonus tracks) are live recordings of early Kreator "classics" like "Riot of Violence", "Terrible Certainty" and "Awakening of the Gods". Taking into consideration that these tracks were recorded live in the late eighties, the sound quality is actually pretty good and the performance by the band is equally satisfying. They are not 100% tight and I hear a few errors here and there, but it´s nice to hear "real" live recordings from a metal act in the more extreme end of the spectrum that sound this good.

"Out of the Dark... Into the Light" is a very successful release to my ears and a reminder that the EP format was something that you took seriously in the eighties. All recordings on the EP were unreleased at the time that "Out of the Dark... Into the Light" was released and therefore the EP was a worthwhile investment back then and still is today as I haven´t found evidence anywhere that suggest that these tracks are available on any of the compilations that Kreator have released so far. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is fully deserved and I might even have set the bar a little low here.

Kingcrimsonprog Kreator’s debut album Endless Pain was released in 1985 when the German trio were under 18 years old. As you can imagine, the album is much rawer and less polished than the albums which would follow, both in terms of studio sound quality and in the band’s own performances.

The band at this stage didn’t entirely seem to have mastered the art of switching between sections in songs, and some of the transitions are pretty awkwardly made here and there. Sometimes, the drumming seems to drift in and out of time as well.

Despite these problems, the album features some of the band’s best-loved works like ‘Tormentor,’ and ‘Flag Of Hate,’ which would grace many Kreator concerts for years to come. After its release back in 1985, the album would become influential to a generation of thrash, black and death metal musicians.

Endless Pain contains a lot of music that demonstrates what the band would later become as well as a fair amount of music that sounds unlike anything the band would ever repeat. ‘Bone Breaker,’ and ‘Cry War,’ being two examples of the later category.

If you are curious about Kreator, definitely try another album first. If you have become a fan however, feel free to give Endless Pain a try. It is rough and raw, but it is still a lot of fun to listen to and historically interesting to boot.

Kingcrimsonprog After a terribly primitive debut album Endless Pain; Kreator released one of their fan favorite albums Pleasure To Kill in 1986, which was a ferocious and biting mixture of all out speed with all out aggression that subsequently went on to become one of the band’s best known works, hugely influential and a classic album of Thrash Metal in general.

Pleasure To Kill contains several of the band’s best known and best loved songs; such as the title track, as well as ‘Riot Of Violence,’ and ‘Under the Guillotine.’ At first listen, people may write Kreator off as pure speed, but upon closer inspection you will find a great deal of variety, complexity and strong musicianship. The band mix in creative riffs of varying tempos and vocal patterns you wouldn’t hear anywhere else, which separates them from some of the lesser bands in the speed-arms-race.

The production on Pleasure To Kill isn’t as polished as on later releases, the lyrics are fairly straightforward and unpolitical and Jürgen ‘Ventor,’ Reil’s drumming style is unusual, but all of that could be taken as good or bad depending on which styles of thrash you enjoy the best.

The albums which followed would expand the band’s scope, with more acoustic sections, longer more complex songs and a technical approach. If however you just want the raw aggression and power then give Pleasure To Kill a listen If you do like nasty, heavy music full of thumping drums, harsh vocals and plentiful guitar solos then Pleasure To Kill is certainly an album you should consider trying out. If you are a full on Kreator fan already however, Pleasure To Kill is an absolutely essential purchase.

If you can, I’d advise buying the version with the Flag Of Hate EP as bonus tracks, which adds three excellent tracks from the same era to the proceedings, two of which are over six minutes long.

Kingcrimsonprog After a terribly primitive debut album, Kreator released one of their fan favorite albums 'Pleasure to Kill,' which was a ferocious and biting mixture of all out speed with all out aggression. Kreaor followed it up with 'Terrible Certainty,' a complex and interesting album with much more varied tempos and more interesting riffs; combing the sheer brute force of Pleasure To Kill with technical aptitude and most important of all, good songwriting.

Songs like 'Terrible Certainty,' 'One of Us,' and 'Behind The Mirror,' are great examples of how Kreator could make the music brutal without being repetitive or grating. Full of intersting riffs, catchy vocal patterns and virtuosic guitar solos, 'Terribly Certainty,' marked a move for Kreator into the big leagues, their increasing success not just due to increased touring or new MTV exposure, but because they had the quality music to back it up.

The only real problem the album suffers from is a rather thin and tinny production, but then again so did most of the albums released around this time.

Along with 'Extreme Aggression' and 'Coma of Souls,'this era of Kreator represents the pinnacle of their Thrash career, with future releases moving in different directions, dividing fan oppinions until their glorious return in 2001 and ever since.

Newer editions comes with the '..Out Of The Dark EP,' as bonus tracks, which consists of some dreadful quality live material and some interesting but non essential cover tunes.

Kingcrimsonprog This DVD from the Violent Revolution era captures Kreator at their best as the energetic virtuosos deliver a career spanning set of classic metal, mixing old and new together in a monstrous performance.

The first thing you'll notice is the unusual green filter over the video, and the fact that the show is split between two different venues, with half the songs live from a concert in Spain and half live from a music festival, the change over between shows being filled with short documentary sections with cameos from other Metal bands (usually drunk) and footage of the band getting ready.

If you can get past these facts, you'll find an amazing DVD to enjoy but if you can't stand that sort of thing you'd be better off buying Kreator's 'Live At The Pulse of Kapitulation,' DVD which is one entire concert, without interruptions or strange green filters.

Anyway the performance the band put on is incredible, delivering the songs with feeling and making the music heavy yet very clear. They make the songs from the nineties sound heavier and thrashier and the 80's classics Clearer and more modern sounding creating a even playing field for the material.

The production is pretty decent too, a nice deep kick drum sound, audible bass guitar and sharp chunky guitar sound. Mille is awesome as ever, barking and growling away like its still 1988. The DVD also contains a history section that mixes a very short documentary with all the bands music videos; nothing life changing, but definitely worth the one viewing.

There are also two bonus songs, the classic concert closing duo of 'Flag of Hate,' and 'Tormentor,' Live from With Full Force Festival although the camera work is much better and the visuals are brighter the sound is muddy and unclear so you will probably not bother with them all that often.

The main feature is as good as any metal DVD from the first half of the decade, and pretty much a no-brainer for any Kreator fan; Highlights include the aggressive and technical 'Reconquering The Throne,' and the infectiously catchy 'Violent Revolution,' as well as a storming rendition of the furious 'People of The Lie.' If you're into concert DVDs and into all eras of Kreator this is very much the DVD for you.

Kingcrimsonprog Kreator are a very important band in the Thrash Metal story, one of Germany's biggest ever bands and a bone fide classic act for metal overall.

This DVD is a fantastic reissue of the historic Live In East Berlin Concert, (which comes in Cd and DVD form here)with a documentary and an amusing horror video called Hallucinative Comas.

The Tracklisting is amazing, containing all of their classics such as 'Toxic Trace,' 'Flag of Hate,' 'Tormentor,' and 'Pleasure to Kill.'

The Band's performance is energetic and exciting; singer Mille interacts with the crowd on a regular basis. Ventor gets a Drum solo and also performs lead vocals on an excellent rendition of 'Riot of Violence.'

Kreator blast through songs like 'Some Pain Will Last,' 'Awakening of the Gods,' and 'Under The Guillotine,' furiously, performing the technically challenging and incredibly fast material with ease and flair.

Most important is the sound; for such an old concert the sound is amazing, much better than other DVDs of similar era concerts. The material is brilliantly mixed and available in 5.1 or stereo; with clear drums, chunky 'full,' guitar sounds and totally audible vocals.

The documentary is pretty interesting, describing the difficulty East German fans had even getting access to metal music, magazines or t-shirts; how the concert came to be, and the impact it had.

For a Kreator fan this cannot be recommended highly enough, the wonderful sound and excellent tracklisting make this one of the best Thrash Metal DVDs money can buy. If you want to hear music from the 'Terrible Certainty,' or 'Extreme Aggression,' albums played live then this is the DVD for you.