KREATOR - Full Set Performance - Bloodstock 2017

Kreator is a German thrash metal band from Essen, formed in 1982.[1] Their current line-up consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Miland "Mille" Petrozza, drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil, lead guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö, and bassist Frédéric Leclercq. The band's line-up has changed multiple times throughout its 43-year career, most noticeably their bassists and lead guitarists. Petrozza and Reil are the only two original members left in Kreator, although the latter left the band in 1994 but rejoined in 1996. Yli-Sirniö has been the lead guitarist of Kreator since 2001, while Leclercq joined in 2019 as the replacement of Christian "Speesy" Giesler, who had been in the band since 1994.

To date, Kreator has released fifteen studio albums, two EPs, two live albums and three compilation albums. They gained a large underground fanbase within the international thrash metal community,[2] with their second studio album Pleasure to Kill (1986) regarded as an influential album of the genre.[1][3] Many of their subsequent albums — including Terrible Certainty (1987), Extreme Aggression (1989) and Coma of Souls (1990) — were also highly acclaimed.[4] Despite being an influential band,[5] as well as one of the first European thrash metal acts to sign to a major label (signing to Epic Records in 1988), Kreator would not achieve mainstream popularity until later albums, including their thirteenth studio album Phantom Antichrist (2012) and its follow-up Gods of Violence (2017), both of which charted highly in many countries, with the latter reaching number one on the German charts.[4][6][7] Their latest studio album, Hate Über Alles, was released on 10 June 2022,[8] and the band is currently working on new material for their next album.[9]

Kreator has achieved worldwide sales of over two million units for combined sales of all their albums, making them one of the best-selling German thrash metal bands of all time.[10][11][12] Along with Destruction, Sodom and Tankard, they are credited as one of the "Big Four" of Teutonic thrash metal,[13] responsible for developing and popularizing the German thrash metal scene as well as pioneering the then-emerging death metal and black metal genres during the mid-1980s.[14][15]

History
Formation and early releases (1982–1987)
The band was originally formed in 1982 as Metal Militia in Essen, Germany, and then became Tyrant. Later they used the name Tormentor until 1984, when they changed to its current name Kreator. The original line-up featured lead vocalist and guitarist Mille Petrozza, drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil, and bassist Rob Fioretti. Kreator recorded their debut album, Endless Pain (1985), in just ten days.[1] The band hired future Sodom guitarist Michael Wulf for the album's tour to play lead, while Petrozza switched to rhythm guitar.

Wulf was only in the band for a few days but, contrary to the liner notes, he did not play on the band's second album, Pleasure to Kill (1986), which is widely considered a thrash classic[16][17][1] and a big influence on the death metal genre.[18][3][19] It would not be until 31 years after its release that Pleasure to Kill entered the German album charts.[4] Produced by Harris Johns (who had also worked with Sodom, Helloween and Voivod), the album showed the band growing in talent and technical ability. The song "Flag of Hate" became a concert standard, and the band became one of the most promising up-and-coming European metal acts. The band started their first tour ever (before the release of Pleasure to Kill, they had only played five gigs total); they played their first shows outside of Germany during the fall of 1986, touring Europe with Destruction and Celtic Frost, and in the spring of 1987, they toured North America for the first time, opening for Voivod on their Killing Technology tour.[20] Kreator's first EP, Flag of Hate, was also released in 1986. The band would become a quartet with the addition of guitarist Jörge Trebziatowski.[1]