Unknown Soldier

The Lowdown
Kreator were not only Germany’s premier thrash metal band, but pretty much the thrash metal band of the European thrash scene from this period. They formed part of the ‘big four of Teutonic thrash metal’ which was certainly a clear reference to the big four of thrash metal stateside. Kreator like their fellow German thrashers Destruction, Sodom and Tankard were prime exponents of the harsher and colder sounding thrash specimen. Pleasure to Kill would be the band’s second album and like a lot of German metal bands Kreator had struggled on their raw sounding debut the year before with Endless Pain. It very much seemed that German metal bands were often pretty hopeless with debut sets around this time in general, based on my findings anyway. The album cover does little to belie what lies beneath it and the album would be produced by well known European metal producer Harris Johns who constantly worked with the big four of the German thrash metal scene and also with bands like Helloween. Pleasure to Kill would repeat the sonic carnage of the debut, but this time around the band had material that h was far superior than was heard on the debut. Kreator as a band sounded both raw and primitive taking their Venom yardstick into extreme metal territory with the fastest and most aggressive noise that they could muster, rivalling what Slayer were doing and pre-empting in many ways the sheer brutality of the approaching storm that Sepultura would usher in. Across the album the guitars as expected are about as harsh and repetitive as you expect from a front line thrash band and certainly don’t disappoint. The bass of Rob Fioretti is actually quite audible for a change and noticeable. The violent drums from drummer Jurgen Rell who also performed three lead vocals on the album are effective enough but show stopper has to be frontman Mlle Petrozza with his evil sounding rasp. The album starts off though on the wrong foot with the rather pointless instrumental intro “Choir of the Damned” but once past that the aggressiveness and massive sounding riffing are in full effect on the delightfully named “Ripping Corpse” the band then step it up even further with the brutal Slayer sounding “Death is Your Saviour” and the dynamic sounding title track “Pleasure to Kill” to complete a brutal unholy trilogy. Kreator then combine superbly their massive riffing with rhythm changes on “Riot of Violence” and go the distance on the album's longest track "The Pestilence". The album finishes with "Under the Guillotine" and for those that demand more the re-release of the album features three extra tracks worth having. Overall Pleasure to Kill is considered a landmark thrash album and whilst I would never put it on the same level as the best offerings from bands like Metallica, Megadeth or Slayer (even though I'm so impressed with it this time) it would still probably rank though as one of the very best thrash albums from Europe over this time period, depending of course on how the listener labels those early Celtic Frost albums. One thing though is certain since starting this journal, Pleasure to Kill must rank as one of the heaviest albums I’ve listened to so far to date. Like other extreme metal offerings Pleasure to Kill would be a huge inspiration to the arriving death metal scene and go onto inspire bands like Morbid Angel amongst many others. Over the next few years and much like the omnipotent Celtic Frost, Kreator wouldn’t be content to rest on their laurels and would evolve into a metal band that would entertain contemporary metal genres to a pretty high standard and issue out some pretty diverse albums later in their discography.

Mlle Petrozza- Guitar/Vocals
Rob Fioretti- Bass
Jurgen Rell- Drums/Vocals

Production- Harris Johns

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