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KREATOR
***NEW 'ENEMY OF GOD' ALBUM OUT 17.1.05 SPV, LONDON ELECTRIC BALLROOM GIG FEB. 16TH*** "A blistering return to form from the German Thrash Legends. Kreator have returned to the brutal dynamics of their celebrated early days and have delivered one of their finest albums in the process. 'Violent Revolution' doesn't herald the complete abandonment of the more subtle, diverse textures of the band's last few albums, but it does feature all the characteristics that made albums like 'Pleasure To Kill' so utterly essential to sensible metal consumers in the mid-to-late-80's…This is top notch Kreator and give even latter-day thrash titans like The Haunted a run for their money. Their best album since 'Extreme Aggressions'. And that's one huge f**king compliment. KKKK" Dom Lawson - Kerrang! September 22nd 2001. Kreator, who have been at the forefront of the German thrash metal scene since their inception in 1984 - let alone internationally, with well over 1 million albums sold to date - release their eleventh studio album, 'Enemy Of God', on SPV on January 17th 2005 and headline London's Electric Ballroom on February 16th. The follow up to 2001's 'Violent Revolution' opus, 'Enemy Of God' was written in days off during the huge world tour which followed the release of that highly acclaimed album and unequivocally echoes the energy that Germany's most successful thrash metal band generated during these shows. "We played countries where we'd never been before", mastermind Mille Petrozza remembers. "Korea was a first for us; we also toured Eastern Europe again and played in the US, South America and lots of exotic places." Whenever the tour schedule allowed him a few days off, Petrozza was busy working on new material for 'Enemy Of God'. Petrozza calls the result "an evolution of our own universe, a kind of summary of Kreator's history without recycling anything." Kreator, whose line-up comprises vocalist Petrozza, drummer Jürgen 'Ventor' Reil, bassist Christian Giesler and guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö state that "Enemy Of God was inspired exclusively by our own history." Petrozza says that "I came up with the basic ideas for the songs, but the whole band was involved in the arrangements, so the tracks can be reproduced live and sound very organic." This is also due to the conscious decision not to use samples or keyboards; 'Enemy Of God' only features guitar, bass, drums, and Petrozza's unmistakable voice. The title track 'Enemy Of God' is a song about the shock of September 11, while 'The Ancient Plague', uses this ancient disease as a metaphor for the downfall of spiritual culture. "To me, this track is the continuation of 'The Pestilence' on Pleasure To Kill", Petrozza explains. 'Impossible Brutality' deals with the voyeuristic media landscape, asking how indifferent you have to become to be able to watch the atrocities on TV so calmly. The music is as brutal as the lyrics: Kreator at their best! 'Impossible Brutality' will be the first single release from the album, and the video is bound to cause a stir. Enemy Of God was produced once again by Andy Sneap, (Machine Head, Stuck Mojo, Skinlab, Nevermore) who gave the new album a powerful and thoroughly metallic sound at his Backstage studios in Nottingham. Enemy Of God will be released along with a bonus DVD featuring lots of surprises. Next to a 'Making Of' of the new album, there is lots of background information on Kreator, the brand-new 'Impossible Brutality' video plus a number of additional extras that Kreator refuse to give away. Fact is: their fans are bound love this package. Devilish
- Roland Hyams on 020 8677 8466 or 020 8769 6713. |
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KREATOR NEW 'VIOLENT REVOLUTION' ALBUM OUT 24.9.01 ON SPV, UK TOUR NOVEMBER.
'Violent Revolution' was recorded at the Backstage Production studios in Nottingham and the Area 51 studios in Celle, Germany, and produced by Andy Sneap (Machine Head, Stuck Mojo, Skinlab, Nevermore). Kreator's vicious thrash style was fired by the filth and industrial pollution problem that Essen, a predominantly working class environment on the River Ruhr, was experiencing in the early 80's. After their recent foray into more melodic metal the band have returned to their original uncompromising, brutal thrash sound on 'Violent Revolution'. Check out the band's seminal, mighty, renewed vitality when Kreator co-headline the following tour with Cannibal Corpse. Krisiun open the bill.
'Violent Revolution' is Kreator's debut album for SPV. Founder member Mille Petroza says that "You can feel that we went about the production with a greater sense of freedom this time around, with much more energy. Our new record company allow Kreator to be ourselves. Nobody expects any world-wide hits, no outsider wants to be part of the group. At long last you can hear Kreator again in our most original form, back to the roots, with today's experience. A kind of new version of Kreator with the insights of the past years, from 'Pleasure To Kill' and 'Extreme Aggression' to 'Coma Of Souls', 'Outcast' and 'Endorama'." This liberating move, a kind of personal revolution against existing conditions, is the lyrical subject of the new album. "Sometimes you get to a point where you have to use a crowbar to free yourself" explains Mille, darkly. The band's return to a harder sound coincides with a line-up change: guitarist Tommy Vetterli (ex-Coroner) was replaced by Finnish guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö, who had already temporarily replaced Tommy when he had an inflamed tendon in the late Nineties. Trashin'
- Roland Hyams on 020 8677 8466
or 020 8769 6713. |
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KREATOR DISCOGRAPHY: ENDLESS
PAIN (1985) THE KREATOR ALBUMS (excerpts from Mille's personal diary) ENDLESS PAIN: "A typical debut album. At the time we were still totally green and had only two weeks for the production. Somehow we were ready after 10 days because the producer felt that we had delivered our optimum performance. As it turned out, he'd simply had enough of us and thought we were pretty vile." PLEASURE TO KILL: "Pleasure To Kill was a more conscious effort, but we were under enormous pressure. The record company that we were with at the time had explained to us that they'd only bring out a second Kreator album if the first one sold well. Yet the album shows that we had grown musically; very complex material, more progressive, really tough metal with Venom, Posessed or Celtic Frost influences." TERRIBLE CERTAINTY: "With our first European tour under our belt, we went about the studio recordings with much more experience. We'd spent a lot of time on the songwriting process, and since we were recording with producer Roy Rowland at the Horus Sound studios in Hanover, we felt we were working under perfect conditions. As it happens, the cooperation with Rowland turned out to be a little peculiar. We'd assumed that he took the band seriously and liked us. Later it turned out that he stayed behind at the studio at night, recording tapes for an American friend who had his own radio show, taking the piss - something along the lines of: I'm sitting here in Germany, recording this strange band, listen for yourselves!" OUT
OF THE DARK/INTO THE LIGHT: "Our record company needed money
for the US tour with D.R.I., so they said to us: 'Why don't you record
a few songs that we can release.' That's more or less all there was
to Out Of The Dark." EXTREME AGGRESSION: "Our albums were selling well, people respected us. Randy Burns (Megadeth, Suicidal Tendencies) was flown in to produce Extreme Aggression. Originally we wanted to record at the Skytrack Studios in Berlin, but as it turned out the studio wasn't up to international standards. Burns was getting sick and tired of the dilemma. At some point we ended up flying to Los Angeles and starting all over again at the Music Grinder Studios. Everything went like clockwork, lyrics and arrangements had reached a level which stood up to the international competition." COMA OF SOULS: "The album just sounds too much like its predecessor. Our record company wanted to have the cuts as early as possible. There's a number of really good tracks on there, but, to be honest, also a few fillers. Coma Of Souls is pretty much a thrown together kind of recording, the lyrics were written in the studio, a lot of songs were rearranged again. On the other hand, a few numbers are very catchy, very mature. But compared to Extreme Aggression, there just wasn't enough of a development." RENEWAL: "The tracks are okay, but the mix sounds much too slow. We allowed ourselves more time than ever before for Renewal, producer Tom Morris is a really laid-back guy - possibly too quiet for Kreator, he should have kicked us more." CAUSE FOR CONFLICT: "The album was produced by Vinnie Wonjno (Machine Head, etc.) and takes the direction of the old thrash metal days. The sound was really good." SCENARIOS OF VIOLENCE: "A kind of best-of album with a number of remix versions of old tracks, some of them sounding much better than the originals." OUTCAST: "We wanted to give the new material a new touch. Kreator 1997 could not sound like Kreator 1985, neither in terms of songwriting nor in terms of production. We worked with samples and loops, and there are guitar effects that sound totally shrill." ENDORAMA: "The attitude towards the music and the line-up are both unmistakably Kreator. Endorama is a deeper exploration up and down the sound spectrum. The aggression is still there, but we also discovered melodies. Morbidly beautiful, non-kitschy melodies. We stuck to the course that we had embarked on with 'Outcast' and worked with keyboards and sequencers without them getting in the way." PAST LIFE TRAUMA: "To me, Past Life Trauma is a really interesting best-of with some remastered versions, a number of bonus tracks and a very nice booklet." VIOLENT REVOLUTION: "The new album is not limited to one style but mirrors Kreator's whole experience. We're back to concentrating on the band's aggressiveness again." Tracks: Reconquering The Throne * The Patriarch * Violent Revolution * All Of The Same Blood (Unity) * Servant In Heaven/King In Hell * Second Awakening * Ghetto War * Replicas Of Life * Slave Machinery * Bitter Sweet Revenge * Mind On Fire * System Decay |