UMUR "Coma of Souls" is the 5th full-length studio album by German thrash metal act Kreator. The album was released through Noise Records in November 1990. Kreator were at the peak of their popularity at this point, having released the very successful "Extreme Aggression" in 1989 and the equally successful concert video "Live in East Berlin" in early 1990. Since the preceding studio album Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik has replaced Jörg Trzebiatowski on guitars. "Blackfire" came from a stint with Sodom, and is also featured on the "Live in East Berlin" video. No less than 5 promotional videos were released for tracks featured on "Coma of Souls". Kreator obviously must have been satisfied with the sound production on "Extreme Aggression (1989)", because they opted to record "Coma of Souls" in Los Angeles with producer Randy Burns, which was also the case with the predecessor.

And there are quite a few similarities between the two albums. The way the tracks are constructed and especially the sound productions feature many similarities (although more polished on "Coma of Souls"). "Coma of Souls" is the more sophisticated release and "Extreme Aggression (1989)" is the more raw and aggressive album of the two, but it´s not completely wrong to call them sibling albums.

The music style is aggressive yet melodic thrash metal. The flair for melody had already surfaced on "Extreme Aggression (1989)" albeit in smaller doses than the case is here. The material are generally catchy, relatively easy to understand without being simple, and well written. Tracks like "When the Sun Burns Red", the title track, "People of the Lie" and especially "Terrorzone" stand out as highlights, but "Coma of Souls" is overall a very solid effort by Kreator. The band´s vicious aggressive nature may have been tamed a bit in favor of more melody and sophistication in the arrangements, but "Coma of Souls" is still a relatively aggressive album.

The musicianship are generally on a high level, with some strong solos and riffs being played and some convincing aggressive rabid dog snarling delivered by Miland "Mille" Petrozza. Drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil is like an elephant in a glasshouse though. His playing style is so predictable, "stiff" and clumsy, that it´s at times bordering comical. It´s tolerable because the rest of the music is so well played, but he doesn´t add anything positive to the sound.

Despite that little issue "Coma of Souls" is overall a high quality release by Kreator, and while I personally prefer the more savage aggression of "Extreme Aggression (1989)" to the more sophisticated and polished sound of "Coma of Souls", the latter still deserves a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating.

Warthur Any Kreator album whose cover features a floaty head dead centre glowering at the viewer seems to hold a special place in the fanbase's heart, and Coma of Souls, the first to sport such a cover, is no exception to that. I find it delivers Kreator's aggressive style of first-wave thrash metal substantially more strikingly and effectively than its predecessor, Extreme Aggression, and it more than lives up to its predecessor's name with breathtakingly brutal performances from all concerned.

There's a magnificently diverse cut on here called Angels of Brutality (which begins with a devastatingly doomy intro before plunging into choppy thrash waters), and Kreator absolutely live up to that name on this album. At the same time, I somehow find the album less appealing on repeated listens, as I pick up more and more of their borrowings from Slayer and Megadeth here and there. It's a decent enough effort, but what comes out is essentially good-quality thrash, nothing game-changing.

Kingcrimsonprog Coma Of Souls is one of Kreator's finest albums and by extension one of the finest metal albums around. The album would prove to be the final entry in the band's classic Thrash Metal Period, but what an album to go out on; the pinnacle of their technical abilities, the best production yet and all the advancements in musicianship that they had made over the years all condensed onto one well written and interesting album.

While just edged out for the absolute top spot by their clasic 'Extreme Aggression' record, this album is still phenomenal with every song featuring amazing guitar solos, chunky riffs and great vocals. Drummer Ventor puts down a particularly noteworthy performance, with the tom based intro to 'Terror Zone,' being a career highlight.

The standout tracks include the fiendishly catchy 'People Of The Lie,' which is one of the best songs Kreator ever released, the title track 'Coma Of Souls' itself, which is chocked full of excellent riffs and the aforementioned 'Terror Zone.'

Overall, Thrash metal rarely comes any better than this. Fantastic and well written; memorable and musically impressive, heavy and varied, 'Coma of Souls' is the complete package.