KREATOR

'Kreator' is a thrash metal band from Essen, Germany. They originally started under the name Tormentor. Starting their career in 1982, they played thrash metal with Venom influences.^[1] Their style of music is similar to their compatriots Destruction and Sodom, the other two big German thrash metal bands. All three of these bands are often credited with helping create death metal, by containing a few elements of what was to become death metal.^[2]
Kreator's work has been consistently in the vein of pure thrash, with the exception of three albums during the 1990s when they undertook serious experimentation.

Contents

Biography

Members

Current members

Former members

Discography

Videography

Trivia

See also

External links

Biography

Kreator formed as Tyrant in 1982 in Essen, Germany. The original lineup featured vocalist/guitarist Mille Petrozza, drummer Jurgen 'Ventor' Reil, and bassist Rob Fioretti. They soon changed their name to Tormentor and released two demos. They changed the name of the band again to the final one, Kreator and signed to Noise Records in 1985 and recorded their debut album, ''Endless Pain'', in just 10 days. Legions of black and death metal bands call it one of their major influences.^[3] The band hired the late Sodom guitarist Michael Wulf for the albums tour.
Wulf was in the band for a few days and didn't play on the band's next album, 1986's ''Pleasure to Kill'', despite his getting credit. A new guitarist, Jörg "Tritze" Trzebiatowski joined the band and he played on this album, which is widely considered a thrash classic.^[4][5][6] Produced by Harris Johns (Helloween, Voivod), it is arguably one of the heaviest, fastest albums in metal, while showing the band growing in talent and technical ability. The song "Flag of Hate" became an early hit, and the band became one of the most promising up-and-coming European metal acts. With Tritze the band started their first tour ever (before the release of ''Pleasure to Kill'' they had only played 5 gigs total). The band closed out the year with the Flag of Hate EP.
In 1987 Kreator released ''Terrible Certainty'', which is often considered to be Kreator's best album as the arrangements on the album were more complex and the tempos more varied.^[7] The album featured another hit "Behind The Mirror", and the band's popularity continued to grow. They managed to find enough time and money (coming from the concerts) to finance another EP ''Out of the Dark ... Into the Light''.
In 1988 Kreator signed with major label Epic Records. Their debut with Epic, 1989's ''Extreme Aggression'', recorded in Los Angeles, became a metal hit. Continuing the ''Terrible Certainty'' formula while showing the band still progressing musically and with better production by the well-regarded Randy Burns (also Dark Angel,Nuclear Assault,Mortal Sin & Megadeth among others), the album featured the band's first major singles and music videos, the title track and "Betrayer", becoming major hits on MTVs ''Headbangers Ball''. They toured North America with Suicidal Tendencies, which greatly expanded their popularity outside of Europe.
In 1989 German director Thomas Schadt made a documentary about Kreator (focusing on the social aspect of heavy metal in the Ruhr Area) titled ''Thrash Altenessen'' (named after the band's hometown, a suburb of Essen). Tritze left Kreator on less than amicable terms soon after the release of''Extreme Aggression''. In 1990, with new guitarist Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik (also formely of Sodom), the band released ''Coma of Souls''. This album was not quite as praised as the bands previous few albums (some felt the album was "rushed" and repetitive^[8]), but still managed to do quite well, with "People of the Lie" becoming a hit. However, things changed in the 90's. With many thrash bands such as Testament,Nuclear Assault and others changing their sound for a more commercial approach. The result was 1992s ''Renewal'', which featured a raw, punk sound as opposed to the technical ,yet catchy thrash metal they were known for,while reaching a new audience, the band surprised many longtime fans,with such a drastic change in sound ,also Mille's high pitched shrieks were substituted in favour of mid range barks,reminiscent of the punk vocal stylings of Discharge etc. ^[9][10]
The excruciatingly taxing touring commitments that followed took the band as far as South America & Australia, but understandably left them physically and creatively exhausted. The band began to fall apart around this time.Founding member Rob Fioretti left the band after the Renewal tour as he wanted to spend more time with his family and was temprorarily replaced by Andreas Herz, who never played any official release & was only in the band a matter of months. In 1995 Reil left as well, leaving Petrozza the sole original bandmember. Reil was replaced by Joe Cangelosi(formerly of new jersey thrash act Whiplash). Herz was replaced by Christian Giesler,which was a wise choice ,as Giesler(a.k.a Spiesi)was actually working with the band as a tech up until that point ,interestingly many fans thought that Rob was still the bass player ,due to Giesler's physical resemblence to Fioretti(mostly from a distance),but it would be Spiesi's style of bass playing that would set him apart from the departed Fioretti.Also to add to their struggles during this period ,was the fact that their contract with Epic was dropped. Now on ''G.U.N. Records'' the new lineup put out the album ''Cause for Conflict'' that year.The result was their most modern album at that time, the sound on this album was said to be a mix of Pleasure To Kill ,Extreme Aggression & Renewal]],this was partly true ,& was also regarded as a return to a more typically thrash metal sound than on the previous album.Although some of the production on the guitars was lacking ,the amazing & absolutley inhuman drumming of Joe Cangelosi more than made up for the album's short comings ,with a flowing groove & precise technicality yet to be matched by other thrash metal(or even death/black metal for that matter) releases gave this album such an edge that not even Slayer could overshadow it.
Gosdzik and Cangelosi left in 1996 following a co-headlining european tour with Grip Inc.(Dave Lombardo's first musical foray outside Slayer) and were replaced by Tommy Vetterli (formerly of technical swiss legendsCoroner), and, surprisingly, Jurgen Reil returned to reclaim his rightful role as THE drummer for Kreator. The band began to slow done in pace with the release of ''Outcast'' in 1997 ,followed in 1999 by ''Endorama'', which were the slowest releases kreator had ever done,outcast suffered from poor ,uninspired production & lack of ambition in the song writing department ,while Endorama much the same ,though totally polished lacked any of the band's usual venomous aggression which they were infamous for.Perhaps the the next most noticable dissapointment came in the fact that none of Tommy Veterlli's usual technical guitar prowess(which he was reverred for in Coroner) was present on either "Outcast" or "Endorama".By the end of the '90s the band reached both commercial and critical nadir. Though frontman Mille Petrozza never cared about this: ''"For us, success doesn't define in record sales. So all our albums have been successful for us, because we've achieved what we were aiming for..."''.^[10]
However, in 2001, with new guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö, the band released their "comeback" album ''Violent Revolution'', which saw the band returning to their classic thrash style ,which was similar to coma of souls ,you could actually say it was coma of souls part 2(="Ultimate Metal Reviews"> Ultimate Metal Reviews - Review of ''Violent Revolution'' ^[12][13][14] The tour was extremely successful and introduced Kreator to a younger generation of metal fans. A live album ''Live Kreation'' and live DVD '' were released in 2003, and a new studio album - which was more than a return to their infanous thrash style ,but slightly updated giving it a definite edge against newer bands like the haunted ,arch enemy etc.- ''Enemy of God'' was released in 2005. This album also saw a special edition re-release in 2006 called ''Enemy of God: Revisited''. In early 2006, Kreator toured North America and Canada with Napalm Death, A Perfect Murder, and The Undying. Kreator will be touring in 2008 with King Diamond, Leaves Eyes, and Cellador.

Members

Current members

★ Miland 'Mille' Petrozza - Guitars, vocals (since 1982, founder)

★ Jürgen 'Ventor' Reil - Drums (1982-1995, 1997-present, founder)

★ Christian 'Spiesi' Giesler - Bass (since 1995)

★ Sami Yli-Sirniö - Guitars (since 2001)

Former members

★ Michael Wulf (deceased) - Guitars (ex-Sodom) (1986, one show only)

★ Jörg "Tritze" Trzebiatowski - Guitars (1986–1989)

★ Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik - Guitars (Mystic (Bra), ex-Sodom) (1989–1996)

★ Tommy Vetterli - Guitars (Coroner) (1996–2001)

★ Roberto "Rob" Fioretti - Bass (1982–1994, founder)

★
★ Joe Cangelosi - Drums (Whiplash, Massacre) (1994–1996)

Discography

''See Kreator discography.''

Videography

★ ''Live in East Berlin'' VHS (1990)

★ ''Hallucinative Comas'' VHS (1991)

★ '' DVD (2003)

★ ''Enemy of God Revisited'' Bonus DVD (2006)

Trivia

★ On June 3, 2005, Kreator played for the first time in an African and Arabic country. It was in Casablanca, Morocco, in a festival called "Le Boulevard Des Jeunes Musiciens".
Bass player Christan (Spiesi)Giesler was approached by Frank Blackfire to join the band at the request of Mille & only had 3 weeks to learn all the material for Cause For Conflict before heading into the studio to record it !!

See also

★ List of songs by Kreator

External links

★ Official Website

★ Sinister Online interview w/ Mille Petrozza

★ Kreator at MySpace

★

★ Kreator at Yahoo! Music