Tag: Kreator

Picking Five Songs From 1990

On By bigbadburchIn Songs By Year6 Comments

All right, it’s time to continue on with my long-running series where I pick five of my favorite songs from a year. Not necessarily my five definitive favorites, but five of my favorites. As always.

This year is 1990. We have left the golden decade of the 1980’s in the dust and music was shaping up to be a hell of a lot different. Even though the symbolic marker of the change was 1991, there was plenty of evidence that things were getting really different just a year before. Music was moving into other territories and a lot of the 80’s standards were about to be left behind. I was entering my teenage years just as the decade kicked off so I was in prime position to take in these changes, even if I didn’t quite know what all was going on right off the bat.

That’s about enough of the lead-in, this isn’t a comprehensive analysis of what happened in the early ’90’s, this is just a list of five songs I really like from 1990. Let’s have at it.

Megadeth – Tornado Of Souls

By 1990 I was moving way more into heavy metal as a whole, it was becoming my favorite form of music and that hasn’t changed 35 years later. Megadeth released their magnum opus Rust In Peace this year and it is in my top five of favorite albums of all time. A lot of the album if full of nuclear war and the government sucks kind of stuff that Dave Mustaine is very fond of, but this song is more personal and involves past relationships and rebounding from them. And of course it’s chock full of guitars, the kind of stuff only Mustaine and Marty Friedman could get up to. One of metal’s greatest songs.

Kreator – People Of The Lie

We’ll stay with thrash and this time visit the German titans on their fifth album, the excellent Coma Of Souls. Here Kreator aimed their sights at Nazis, the scourge of their own country. The song is a powerful rant against the shallow stances of Nazi believers. Sadly the song has become much more relevant today, but this was an excellent thrasher with a great message back in the day.

The Black Crowes – She Talks To Angels

Rock was by no means dead in 1990, but it sure was changing. One face of that change was the sudden ascent of the Black Crowes, a blues-based/jam band sort of prospect armed with a cache of catchy, infectious and effective songs. My favorite of the bunch is this somber ballad about a gal who is caught up in a drug addiction. While the song is not based in much reality, it is a haunting and touching affair that rings true no matter what the calendar says.

AC/DC – Thunderstruck

Ok, so not everything changed in rock in 1990. The good old standard AC/DC arrived on the scene yet again, this time armed with the stellar Razor’s Edge album. The opening track and lead single became one of the band’s hallmark songs, yet another addition to their playlist on classic rock radio that is played to no end. It’s easy to hear why – this is one massive slab of rock badassery. It’s guitars upon guitars, pounding drums and screeching, which is just how I like it.

Judas Priest – Painkiller

So Priest didn’t have the best latter half of the ’80’s – Turbo and Ram It Down aren’t “bad” albums per se, but they aren’t highlights of the Priest catalog either. The band reconvened as the decade changed and HOLY SHIT did they find the heavy metal again. Painkiller is a blast of molten hot metal unlike that which the band had even done to this point, despite being one of the signposts of the genre. This song and whole album will rip your face off, and that’s exactly how we like it around here. And by we I mean me, as I’m the only one typing bullshit on this site.

That wraps up 1990. Suffice to say, next week’s post will be somewhat important, as 1991 will be upon us. It was such an important year to music as a whole and my own musical fandom that it might require something a bit special. We shall see next week.

Kreator – Endless Pain (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week4 Comments

Going back to the mid-80’s to visit with a cornerstone of the German thrash scene and the debut of one of metal’s most prolific acts. This week will also showcase a new feature – me not using a shitload of words.

Kreator – Endless Pain

Released October 11, 1985 via Noise Records

My Favorite Tracks – Endless Pain, Flag Of Hate, Total Death

Kreator formed in 1982, known by the names Metal Militia, Tyrant and Tormentor before finally settling on Kreator. The band was staffed by guitarist/vocalist Mille Petrozza, bassist Rob Fioretti and drummer/singer Jürgen Reil, aka Ventor. Both Mille and Ventor remain the nucleus of Kreator to this day.

Noise Records was an upstart metal record label in Europe that was just off the ground and running by 1985. The label signed Kreator and Endless Pain was recorded in just ten days. Noise would become a hotbed of European heavy metal and Kreator would rise to be a signature act for Noise.

Endless Pain was a primitive and cruel-sounding record, a thrash album coupled with the early extreme metal noise fathered by the likes of Venom, Celtic Frost, Bathory and Mercyful Fate. This was raw, aggressive and evil – it was not cultivated for a greater pop audience, rather it was metal made by and for the growing masses who were pushing for heavier and heavier music in the wake of thrash’s arrival.

Given the album’s savage and simple construction, as well as no real need to visit the lyrical themes of each song in isolation, I’ll skip a lot of steps today and simply list the tracks, then discuss a few highlights.

There is one other thing to note here – while Mille has been the voice of Kreator for the bulk of existence, on this album Mille and Ventor split vocal duties. Mille does vocals on songs 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 while Ventor handles the odd-numbered stuff.

Endless Pain

Total Death

Storm Of The Beast

Tormentor

Son Of Evil

Flag Of Hate

Cry War

Bonebreaker

Living In Fear

Dying Victims

This album is a buzzsaw, with lo-fi production and a savage approach to both instruments and lyrics. There is a similar cadence to many of the songs, it is in some ways an embryonic version of what Kreator would become. It doesn’t offer much in the way of variety – either you like this album or you don’t, there isn’t a lot of “track 5 is cool but 6 I can skip.” It’s an all or nothing deal.

While this could be called “underdeveloped” by some, Endless Pain is hailed as a classic just the way it is. Thrash as a whole was moving toward major label deals and high-end production values around this time in the US, while in Germany it was a far more raw offering that kept the underground and “dangerous” feeling alive – while Satanic Panic parents where wailing about hair metal, this kind of stuff was also around.

For me this album is the perfect balance of listenable production and the raw sound many metal bands were looking for, or were perhaps stuck with due to budget constraints. No this production won’t win any industry awards, but the music is clear and listenable. I have heard and even liked a fair number of awfully produced albums in my years, but Endless Pain was never one that upset me. It walks the line very well and its lo-fi atmosphere enhances the record.

And this noise would bear influence – just as Kreator and their countrymen Sodom and Destruction were keeping thrash lo-fi and running along the same lines as Venom and the like, a new group of musicians influenced by all of this would lay the groundwork for death metal and black metal. By the time 1990 rolled around, heavy metal had mutated quite a bit from how it entered the 1980’s.

A few of the songs from Endless Pain have become Kreator staples – the title track and Flag Of Hate are the signature tunes from the record, and Tormentor also sees a fair bit of play to this day. This raw set was not forgotten as Kreator refined their sound through the ensuing years, rather it was celebrated as the savage beginning of a new metal legend.

Endless Pain kicked off the nearly 40-year career of the band that became legends of thrash, German and worldwide. While US thrash was creeping up sales charts and was just about to explode in mainstream popularity, Kreator and their peers offered up a new, raw approach that would help steer several other metal subgenre offshoots in the years since. Kreator have refined and reinvented themselves over the decades but at times it seems their first notes still ring the loudest.

Tales From The Stage – Kreator and Accept

On By bigbadburchIn live music9 Comments

Today I’m going back in the time machine to 2012. It seems odd to have to look so far back for what was just a recent year, but that’s what getting old and going through a series of crazy world events does, it puts a lot of distance to even the recent past.

2012 was kind of funny – it was the year the world was “supposed” to end, based on some idiot’s interpretation of the Mayan calendar. The calendar did not end, it just went to a new cycle. And, as we saw, the prediction was 8 years early.

Anyway, the point of this September evening was to convene to see two legends of German metal – Accept and Kreator. Accept were into their second album with “new” lead singer Mark Tornillo and Kreator were running a stable line-up and touring behind the 2012 album Phantom Antichrist.

This was quite a twin billing, both were bands I had never seen so this was a great way to get two off the bucket list at one time. The show was in Kansas City at a decent sized club called The Beaumont. I’d seen a few shows there but sadly the club closed at some point after this concert.

It’s also worth mentioning that this show was just two days after another trek to Arkansas for a concert. I’ll give that show, highlighted by St. Vitus, a post someday, but there were a lot more bands involved with that so I’ll save it for another time when I’m less lazy. It was a true “700 miles of metal” weekend.

So on to the night of German metal. The show was opened by Finnish death/doom outfit Swallow The Sun. I’m just gonna be real about it – I haven’t listened to Swallow The Sun much at all, couldn’t tell you if I like them or not, and I don’t remember a damn thing about their set that night. I’m guessing that I wasn’t moved given my lack of memory.

Accept was up next and yes I absolutely remember their set. Roughly half the set comprised songs from the (then) two albums fronted by Tornillo – Blood Of The Nations and Stalingrad. While some Accept fans could not accept (…) the departure of classic vocalist Udo Dirkschneider and his replacement with Tornillo, I have been one to love this newer era of Accept. Hearing the new songs aired out live was a fantastic experience.

Accept were phenomenal on that night, cutting through both new stuff and the classic era songs like Restless And Wild and Metal Heart. The set ended with the band’s most famous songs, Fast As A Shark and Balls To The Wall. It was an electric set, Mark and the band were totally on point all night. It rang truer than the huge stacks of amps lined up across the stage, which were totally not real and a bit comical, but it’s all good.

There is no good footage of the specific tour I saw, so here’s an actual pro-shot video from a release they did awhile later.

Kreator were up next. This was my first (and to date only) time seeing the legendary German thrashers, who have been one of my favorites for a long time. Their 2000’s resurgence was spectacular and I was very happy to be finally seeing the group live.

There is one thing about Kreator and live shows – I’m not sure that if, in the course of their now 40 year history that they are allowed to soundcheck before gigs. That might be putting it a bit too harshly, but the band does have a reputation for not caring all that much what they sound like on stage. They have done live albums that sound fine, but in a random bar in Kansas City they might not give as much of a shit about their sound.

I will say that yeah, they were loud and not “dialed in,” but I could still make out their songs fine. It wasn’t the worst sounding live show I’ve heard. There was no dissecting the finer points of their sound but hey, this is a loud thrash band and you might as well roll with it.

Kreator had a set that was focused on their most recent album Phantom Antichrist. The album was a good one, one of several in a row for the group and so it was nice to hear some cuts from it. Beyond that they jumped around to several points of their long career, playing everything from 1986’s Pleasure To Kill to 2009’s Hordes Of Chaos. It was a lot of title tracks and a look at several parts of their catalog. A few songs were bundled into two-part medleys, including the classics Endless Pain and Flag Of Hate. I’m not normally a medley guy but this worked out fine.

One funny part was toward the end of their set. They played The Patriarch, which is the instrumental intro to Violent Revolution. It’s one of my favorite Kreator songs (and albums), so I jumped up front to headbang along and shout some lyrics back. I’m usually pretty subdued during shows but I wanted to jam out for a little bit.

Holy shit, the people up front acted like I was going insane or something. It’s like these people had never been to a metal show before. These people, directly up front, acted like I was punching babies or something. I don’t know what was wrong with them, but I went ahead and rocked out to the song just the same. I don’t know their deal, I saw Testament in Kansas City a few years prior and that crowd was absolutely electric, but these people were sticks in the mud.

Anyway, Kreator got done with their not optimally mixed but still pretty good set and the night was over. I made it to the hotel and back home the next day without being apprehended for a moment of energy and headbanging. It was nice to see Kreator, but Accept was the true toast of the evening.

Kreator – Violent Revolution (Album of the Week)

On By bigbadburchIn Album of the Week4 Comments

This week I’m going back 21 years to an album that revitalized a band’s fortunes and heralded a coming revival in thrash metal. That revival is still in full swing for both the genre and the band. An old dog came out of the wilderness of the ’90’s, learned a few new tricks, and kickstarted a new era for their already legendary name. It is also another case of an album getting new visibility due to a sorely-needed vinyl reissue that saw the light of day in late January.

Kreator – Violent Revolution

Released September 25, 2001 via Steamhammer/SPV Records

My Favorite Tracks – Violent Revolution, All Of The Same Blood, Servant In Heaven – King In Hell

Kreator were like many thrash acts that saw their fortunes fade in the 1990’s. The band had a well-regarded album with Coma Of Souls in 1990 but then began incorporating more experimental elements into their music for the remainder of the decade. While opinions vary widely on the four albums released through the rest of the 20th Century, the band had fallen from their perch as one of thrash and speed metal’s pioneering acts with their savage 80’s output.

The turn of the millennium saw Kreator refocus and return to their thrash roots. This wasn’t simply to be a nostalgia trip, though – the band looked to the north and the sounds of Swedish melodic death and thrash. The Gothenburg Sound had been one of metal’s few bright spots through the latter half of the 90’s and it fit just fine with Kreator’s thrash ethos.

The result would be Violent Revolution. Just as heavy metal entered an upswing period in the early 2000’s, Kreator were there to help lead the charge for thrash once again. This new effort would recapture the attention of lapsed fans and also find a new, younger fanbase eager to headbang along to the newly invigorated thrash legends.

Thrash metal resumes for business on the opening track Reconquering The Throne. The song feels like something that could have come from Coma Of Souls. Mille Petrozza’s scream of “reconquering the throne” sounds as much like a mission statement as a song and then the Swedish influence appears in the next guitar passages.

The Patriarch is a brief instrumental that introduces the album’s title track and magnum opus. Violent Revolution is an absolute triumph of the band’s new sound, combining the savage intent of the band who wrote songs like Flag Of Hate and Endless Pain with the new melodic push. The song not only serves to redefine Kreator’s sound but is, for better or worse, a song that has come to embody today’s dark themes of uncertainty and now all-out war.

The album continues to visit the dark and unholy with All Of The Same Blood, depicting a group of “totalitarian psychopaths” destroying everything. It is again a tune that both has the classic Kreator sound and also offers more melodic interludes to keep things fresh. Servant In Heaven – King In Hell employs the well-known metal theme of blasphemy. The song slows things down a bit to a militant march through the contrast between light and dark, Heaven and Hell.

Second Awakening continues the look at the world and society’s ills and wars over the past few thousand years. Ghetto War is another thrash marching tune that envisions some sort of uprising of the poor against the powers that be. It’s unclear if this is in reference to the modern day or a historical look at the Warsaw ghetto uprising during World War II.

Replicas Of Life sees the album’s longest runtime at over 7 minutes and also a brooding introduction that then goes into the same melodic thrash the band have now established. This song maintains the album’s themes of crushing despair, hopelessness and the living end embodied in society’s gloom. The next song Slave Machinery continues the plunge into dystopian horror, this time casting an eye to the industrial complex and its twisted, horrific form.

Violent Revolution enters its home stretch with Bitter Sweet Revenge, a song that leaves the dystopian observations aside and looks at the all-consuming quest for vengeance instead. It’s the Batman story told in music form. Mind On Fire highlights what seems to be a drug-induced fantasy trip, though still set among the ruins of society that the album uses as a backdrop. We close with System Decay, an absolute scorcher that wraps up the hellscape with a nice little bow.

Kreator struck gold with their 2001 set and helped re-establish thrash metal as a force going into the new century. They would soon be joined by many old hands like Exodus, Testament and Overkill before a whole new generation of metalheads embraced the classic thrash sound and brought the genre back from the past. The 2000s saw thrash enter the same space as black and the also-resurgent death metal to push metal as a whole forward into a new golden age. Sure it wasn’t the heights of the 80’s, but heavy metal found a more than willing crowd ready to embrace the wide variety of styles on display.

Violent Revolution set a course for Kreator going forward, one that they have yet to abandon or even tweak much. The past two decades have seem much of the same savage thrash married with Gothenburg elements that this album put on offer. The band would into the 2010’s seeing new highs in album sales and chart success and solidifying themselves as one of thrash’s most noteworthy acts.