KREATOR — Pleasure to Kill (review)

KREATOR — Pleasure to Kill album cover Album · 1986 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
Pleasure to Kill is the 2nd full-length studio album by German thrash metal act Kreator. The album was released in November 1986 by Noise Records. The original vinyl version of the album contained 9 tracks ( 1 of them is an intro). Later CD re-issues include the Flag of Hate (1986) EP as a bonus. As an anekdote the intro track Choir of the Damned is a minute longer on the CD version of the album compared to the vinyl version. I´ve owned the vinyl version like forever, so it was very strange to hear the album open like it does on the CD version. The first time I thought I was listening to the wrong album.

The music on the album is old school German thrash metal. The vocal duties are shared between guitarist Mille Petrozza ( who sings on 5 tracks) and drummer Ventor ( who sings on 3 tracks). Personally I´m not too fond of Ventor´s raw barking style vocals while Mille Petrozza´s caustic sneer is much more rewarding to my ears. All tracks on the album are violently aggressive thrash metal assaults and listening to the album it´s no wonder that Pleasure to Kill was an instant classic in the genre from the day it was released. Kreator had earned a great deal of recognision with their debut album Endless Pain (1985) but it was with Pleasure to Kill, they really put their name on the map. Songs like Ripping Corpse, Pleasure to Kill, The Pestilence, Under the Guillotine and Riot of Violence ( the only Ventor led track that I think is great) are high quality German thrash metal. The rest are pretty good too but not as significant.

The production is raw and actually a bit messy. Especially in the faster sections of the songs. It´s not always easy to decipher what´s going on. The sound has its charm though and compared to the lifeless sound on the debut album this is an improvement.

Pleasure to Kill is a good and sometimes even great album release by Kreator and for fans of raw and aggressive German thrash metal this is of course a must have album. Personally I think the album sounds a bit dated and Ventor´s vocals are not exactly a positive feature either but still a 3.5 star rating is fully deserved. There was once though about 20 years ago when for a while Pleasure to Kill was my favorite album and my rating would have looked very different had I reviewed the album back then.
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