Inspired by the likes of Black Sabbath, Metallica and Motorhead, the band took shape in 1982, with the original line up consisting of: Mille Petrozza (vocals, guitar), Jurgen “Ventor” Reil (drums) and Rob Fioretti (bass) firstly known as Tyrant and then Tormentor. The newly formed band released two demos “Blitzkrieg” in 1983 and “End of the World” in 1984.
In 1985, the band signed with the new German metal label Noise Records who encouraged the final name change and they settled on Kreator. It took them only ten days to record their debut album “Endless Pain” released later that year and created a huge buzz in the prominent underground metal scene emergent in Germany. With blistering and brutal thrash chords reverberating throughout the album, Kreator won an allegiance of fans. Promoting the album, the band added late Sodom guitarist Michael Wulf to play on the release tour.
In 1986 Kreator released their follow up album “Pleasure to Kill” which introduced the addition of guitarist Jorg ‘Tritze’ Trzebiatowski. The album considered a thrash classic demonstrated the band’s rapid progression of talent and technical ability, featuring the popular track “Flag of Hate” which made regular appearances on their live set lists. At the end of the year, the band released the three track EP “Flag of Hate”.
Releasing two albums and an EP between 1987-9, Kreator were given the opportunity to hop on tour with American thrash heavyweights Suicidal Tendencies on their North American tour which helped broaden the band’s appeal outside of Europe.
In 1989 the band featured in Thomas Schadt’s documentary “Thrash Altenessen” exploring the social effects of heavy metal in their local area. Following the release of their fourth album “Extreme Aggression”, Tritze departed in 2000 and was replaced by former Sodom guitarist Frank ‘Blackfire’ Gosdzik.
Whilst the 90’s became a pivotal point of genre experimentation for forerunners like Metallica and Anthrax in an attempt for commercial appeal, Kreator went against the grain delving deeper into death and industrial metal prominent in the 1992 album “Renewal”.
With a relentless touring schedule, it began to take a toll on the band as one by one they dropped out leaving Petrozza as the only original member. Fleeting member came and went and by the new millennia the line-up included: Christian ‘Speesy’ Giesler, Sami Yli-Sirnio and the return of Reil.
Over their extensive band history spanning decades, Kreator have become a beacon to many bands within the trash genre playing numerous festivals and sharing the stage with bands like: Napalm Death, Warbringer, King Diamond and Exodus. Kreator continue to provide electrifying, show-stopping performances ever enthused with an abundance of passion.
Carcass was first formed in 1985 by guitarist Bill Steer and drummer Ken Owen under the name Disattack. Joined by vocalist Sanjiv and bassist Jeff Walker, they changed the name of the band to Carcass; and in 1987, they recorded a demo called “Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment.” Shortly after, Sanjiv left the group so the remaining three members split vocal responsibilities for their album “Reek of Putrification,” which caught the attention of Radio 1 DJ, John Peel.
“Symphonies of Sickness,” their second album, was released in 1989 and featured more death metal than the previous album. While on tour for the album they had guitarist Michael Amott join them, eventually taking a permanent position in the band and helping with the composition of their next album, “Necrotism- Descanting The Insalubrious.” The band went through a bit of a sound change for their fourth album entitled “Heartwork” which was released in 1993. After its release they signed with Columbia Records. Starting in 1994 the band started to record their new album, “Swansong,” however, a controversy occurred between the label and the band causing the album to not be released until 1996. But the release of “Swansong” didn’t come before the band switched over to Earache Records and broke up for a brief time, but despite the success of “Swansong” the band could not continue together.
In September 2007 Carcass reformed with Amott, Steer, Walker and Daniel Erlandsson (who replaced Ken Owen). Their first show back in the public was the German heavy metal festival, “Wacken Open Air.” Their appearance was followed by a reunion tour around the world as well as appearances made at many festivals. In 2013 the band signed a deal with Nuclear Blast with a slated EP release of “Surgical Remission/Surplus Steel.”
I got to see Kreator and Warbringer when I went to see Overkill at Stage 48 on a visit to New York. Although the band has been around since 1982, I hadn't heard much of their music before.
They have the expected heavy guitars and drums that are prevalent through all heavy metal, and have a sort of early to mid 90's Metallica sound that includes heavy, driving guitar riffs, easy to understand, somewhat melodic lyrics and a maintained drum beat throughout.
Heavy metal is a style that generates energy when it is good and relies on that energy in a live performance, and here Kreator was absolutely fantastic. Engaging the audience with both the music and fantastic visuals to jump, sing along to punctuate the songs, and generally move, dance, mosh and surf, Kreator got the crowd involved in the show and made it a truly interactive, energetic and just plain fun live performance.
While I sometimes enjoy listening to metal at home, it is nothing compared to the experience of a live metal concert where there are hundreds and thousands of fans all driving the energy of the music higher and Kreator is A+ with this. I would be glad to see them on the list of the next metal concert I go to.
British extreme metal band Carcass is not for everyone, and definitely not for the faint hearted; however, if you can handle their face melting, body crushing, completely mind-blowing music, you should definitely check out their live show, because it doesn’t even come close to the recorded versions of their songs. Despite having a few line-up changes, a short-lived disbandment and even a health scare, the band Liverpool band continues to travel the world to melt their fans faces off.
With Jeff Walker on bass and vocals, Bill Steer on guitar and backing vocals, Ben Ash on guitar, and Daniel Wilding on drums, the band is a completely unstoppable force once they get up on the stage. Their fans are just as wild as a pack of crazed, action filled followers who move and mosh so hard that it is almost dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. If you take a step to the side and watch, and take in the amazing sounds of the band’s music you will find yourself in a completely different world. The energy is unfathomable, both from the crowd as well as the band, and you can’t help but fall into all of at once.