Kreator , Germany’s most eminent thrash metal band, are set to release their latest studio album, ‘Hordes Of Chaos’ as a high quality box set, ‘Hordes Of Chaos – Ultra Riot’, on Steamhammer / SPV on August 30th.
The new box set contains the ‘Hordes Of Chaos’ album as a digipak (with a new cover and new booklet, including new liner notes by Joel McIvor, plus 2 enhanced videos) and a bonus CD containing 2 cover versions (of German band Slime and Bad Religion), plus 5 previously unreleased demos. Also included are a high quality 12 page booklet of images by famous photographer Harald Hoffman, a full colour poster of the album cover, a full colour postcard, full colour sticker and a voucher for the Kreator merchandise shop at www.kreator-terrorzone.de.
“Few extreme metal bands build a career that lasts over 25 years. Even fewer are playing better, faster and harder than the competition after that time. And fewer still are still capable after so long of writing and recording an album that is as good – or better – as anything they’ve ever done. Kreator did exactly that when they released Hordes Of Chaos in January 2009.
An enormously powerful album stuffed with songs that restated Kreator’s claim to the European thrash metal throne, Hordes… effortlessly out-riffed and out-shredded metal bands who were still sperm when Kreator first formed. What’s most remarkable is that the mesmerising precision and ferocity of the music was developed with a minimum of technical assistance, the Essen-based quartet laying down the songs live in the studio – a reliable approach which had served the band well since the Pleasure To Kill days back in ’85.
If you’ve been following the progress of Kreator’s long-standing current line-up – Mille Petrozza (vocals, guitar), Sami Yli-Sirniö (guitar), Christian ‘Speesy’ Giesler (bass) and Jürgen ‘Ventor’ Reil (drums) – you’ll know that Hordes Of Chaos is the latest in a series of three crucial albums for the band and the music which they represent. When Kreator released Violent Revolution in 2001, they demonstrated their ability to balance brutality and finesse at a time when the metal scene was in a rather chaotic state. 2005’s Enemy Of God was a step further, with a renewed speed and violence that the fans loved. Hordes Of Chaos, meanwhile, is the perfect statement of modern thrash metal. Anyone expecting Petrozza and crew to reduce the amount of passion they put into their music only has to hear the singer’s repeated screams of “Absolute misanthropy!”, like some kind of occult curse, in the last few seconds of the song of the same name – and the point will be made quickly and effectively.
The most immediately refreshing thing about this album, apart from its crisp widescreen sound, is the hunger which Kreator have poured into the songs. There is absolutely no sense that the band are content to sit back and admire their successes: the musicians play with a precise fury that is practically unequalled in metal bands of their generation.”
(Taken from Joel McIvor’s new sleeve notes).
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