KREATOR — Endless Pain (review)

KREATOR — Endless Pain album cover Album · 1985 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
UMUR
Endless Pain is the debut full-length studio album by German thrash metal act Kreator. The album was released in October 1985 by Noise Records. The band had released a couple of demo tapes in the period 1982 - 1984 when they were called Tormentor but decided for a name change in 1985. The band hails from Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia and because of their young age they actually had to be driven to Berlin to record Endless Pain as they were not yet old enough to drive themselves. After 10 days the album was recorded.

The music on the album is old school German thrash metal or what some people like to call teutonic thrash metal. No matter what you call it the music is simple, mostly fast-paced and filthy as hell thrash metal. As opposed to later Kreator albums where drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil only sings on a limited number of tracks, the vocal duties on Endless Pain are shared by Jürgen "Ventor" Reil and guitarist Miland "Mille" Petrozza. The former has a kind of raw barking vocal style while the latter has a caustic aggressive delivery that I´m sure many black metal vocalists have aimed at sounding like. The songs are very similar in style and only the first minute of Dying Victims which features a slightly less distorted guitar sound, sets itself apart from the rest. Kreator were always Slayer worshippers and on this album more than on any other album by the band. The release of Show No Mercy (1983) definitely didn´t go unnoticed in Essen. Kreator take the raw thrash metal style of the Slayer debut a bit further though and I´m pretty sure that Endless Pain must have been one of the most brutal and aggressive releases coming out in 1985.

The playing is quite sloppy at times and gives the album an authentic feel. It´s probably an aquired taste if that´s something you will enjoy though.

The production is quite messy and paired with the bad playing the outcome is not very succesful to my ears. The guitars are thin sounding, the drums have a strange sound and the vocals are a bit too high in the mix. The latter is a feature I enjoy though.

Endless Pain is a seminal German thrash metal album and I know the album has many worshippers. I can´t say I´m one of them. I find the album amaturish, monotone and bad sounding and a 2 star rating is warranted. I´m sure fans of the authentic teutonic thrash metal sound will enjoy the album more than I do though and with a seminal album like this it´s of no importance that I don´t enjoy the album much, because if you have just the slightest interest in thrash metal you´ll take a listen no matter how I feel about Endless Pain.
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