Kreator

The $.25 overview
From: Germany
Formed: 1982
Genre: Thrash Metal
More Info: http://kreator-terrorzone.de/


What they sound like & Why I love them

When I was in sixth grade, other kids were listening to things like Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch or C + C Music Factory or DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. They dressed like the cast of 90210 and the girls still styled their hair with the "big bangs."

I was listening to Kreator and Morbid Angel and Megadeth. I wore ripped jeans and combat boots. Half my head was shaved, some hair was dyed blue and I never, ever wore makeup.

Needless to say, I was a bit of an outsider amongst my classmates.

I fondly remember the day that I fell in love with Kreator: my grandmother owned a pawn shop and I was allowed to rummage around in the cassette tapes and take home anything my heart desired.

Even without eye-poppingly awesome album artwork, this tape was what my heart desired. Somehow I just knew it was the greatest album I would ever hear.

You know how people always talk about how a band or an album "spoke to them" and "really changed their life"? Yeah. This album spoke to me.

I plowed through the liner notes. I learned all the words to all the songs. And I listened to it, over and over again, the volume on my little sony boombox turned up as loudly as it would go, singing along until my throat was raw. This album made me want to grow up to be the singer in a metal band.

 I literally wore the tape out.

If you hadn't guessed yet, I love thrash metal. At it's best it's fast and furious; an utterly brutal assault on your senses. A great thrash track makes your head start banging without you even realizing it. Sometimes sloppy and raw, sometimes technically flawless, thrash is everything I want metal to be.

Kreator embodies everything I love about thrash. Angry. Heavy. Fast. Over time their music tightened up (listen to Endless Pain and then Extreme Aggression) but even at their sloppiest they are an incredibly tight band. Their sound is stripped down and while occasionally "complex" it's never flowery or over done. There is nothing extra about their music - even through evolutions in sound and band members.

Sometimes, you need to be nervous when a band's lineup changes. Not the case with Kreator. Somehow they manage to continually bring on board musicians that can keep the pace steady.


Songs to check out
Some Pain Will Last
Phantom Antichrist
People of the Lie
Hoards of Chaos