Kreator
Phanton Antichrist

German thrash legends or maybe thrash veterans depending on how you view them, are back with a new album which is their thirteenth in the long career which has seen them releasing albums since 1985. One of the bands that were there when the thrash wave started around this time and a leading german thrash band since then. And for this their thirteenth album they have been quite praised in reviews that I have found, which is good for them of course. The cover art looks quite typical Kreator and if the music is that then will will have a solid piece of work.

A fascinating thing I found when fixing the code for the video in this review was that at the tube the comments were filled with discussions or arguments if you prefer that phrasing, about metalcore compared to thrash metal with the metalcore fans stating that metalcore is more brutal than thrash and that those musicians are more talented and that band like Kreator only appeals to people around fifty. The thrash fans argue that metalcore is not metal and some other bla, bla, bla. Thing is though that metalcore has thrash metal to thank for even existing and they are basically the same sure metalcore is louder and shoutier but better musicians, hardly. That is down to which bands you compare and not genres and they are both subgenres of the same branch of the metal tree and still people seem to regard it as a matter of life and death calling each others idiots and stuff. One has to wonder if they both aren’t equally big idiots taking musical discussions that seriously, after all it is a form of entertainment nothing more, it is not really that important.

But before I completely loose myself in that discussion I found in relation to Kreator, they have not really changed that much over the years and if you know Kreator you will be able to more or less imagine how this will sound. There are no real surprises musically. The production is good, you could name drop millions of bands that arrived at the same time as these guys as similar but I won’t. Bobby Blitz of Overkill gave me the perfect words for describing this kind of music when I spoke to him earlier this year, sorry about Devils Bobby, maybe next year. He described their music as a controlled form of chaos and that is perfect to describe this band as well. Brutal attack mixed with melodic touches and an angry singer, it is aggressive and brutal more so than most metalcore bands I have heard (and I have heard many of them) and they attack without compromise but still with a catchy feel to it, just like we have come to expect from them. Ten tracks that are rather varied and they do play for 45 minutes so at least they know not to overstay their welcome in the stereo.

They are good as well, they make everything with such confidence and distinctiveness making it feel like it comes very naturally for them, it feels a tad like it is done on routine. No Kreator fan will be disappointed with this as it presses the same buttons as the earlier works and it is done excellently, the sound is great and their performances are wonderful but maybe they didn’t quite manage to make the songs that would have made me really interested. I do really like United in Hate which has a catchiness and great melodies to it, something making it just stand out when listening to the album which I have done more than a dozen times now and although I am not bored with it, only one thing sticks in my mind.

So in the end I would say that Kreator will not disappoint, if you like them since before you will like them now as well, if it is the other way it will remain that way after this album as well as it offers nothing new or different. It is a solid thrash metal album that grabs my attention for four and a half minutes, and that makes something of an impression but overall the album is just too similar to what we have gotten before. I think they need more than a slight update in their music to make me take real notice.