Sometimes a serious of independent events gives birth to the ultimate coincidence. This gloriously showed up while I was in the process of reviewing the new KREATOR album that will hit the stores sometime in the beginning of the new year.
So, while Greece was (actually still is) caught in the middle of some violent riots provoked by the mindless and pointless cold blooded murder of a 15 years old kid by a policeman I was giving additional spins to the Hordes Of Chaos album. The first thing I noticed was that the lyrics were a perfect match for the situation in Greece dealing with similar feelings and ideas like hatred, social decay, oppression and of course chaos. The album follows the path that Violent Revolution carved seven years before; cutting edge guitar riffs, the classic German Thrash Metal signature and Mille's spitting vocals. One thing that I consider new to this album is the generally 'natural' sound that brings the listener (especially the young one) closer to KREATOR's live performances.
Even though Mille's voice sounds less distorted with a slightly higher pitch it still possesses all the elements that made him known to the Metal scene. Of course I am talking about power, aggression and all that elements that made KREATOR known. For sure, some will say (rightfully though) that the German pact uses the same old recipe using an almost 'plastic' sound and moving to safer grounds. Even if we would adopt this opinion we could not let songs like Hordes Of Chaos (A Necrologue For The Elite), Warcurse or Radical Resistance go unnoticed. The tempo is fast with compact as hell drum work and catchy almost MAIDEN-esque double guitar harmonies. The lyrics were are as it seems still are a strong part in KREATOR's music; Mille implements his 'classic' poetry using powerful expressions like everyone against everyone, violence is conquering the whole or destroy what destroys you that promise to raise and accompany the violent concert festivities (moshing, crowd surfing and headbanging). There are plenty of reasons to snap your neck listening this album; groovy Thrash tempos, the almost old school German fast breaks (yeah the Flag Of Hate day cannot return) and the killer guitar leads are definitely some of them.
The band chose to Moses Schneider to seat behind the sound console and I have to admit they did a wise decision. Moses brought the band in the studio to live record the basic tracks. This give the album an almost raw sound that yes is closer to the band's foundation than Violent Revolution claims to be. During the album listening I found myself thinking of Extreme Aggressions and -why not- Coma Of Souls. The band becomes stronger on-stage and Hordes Of Chaos will 'help' them do what they are doing best the two last decades; play German Thrash the way it should be.
The bottom line is that KREATOR prove once again that we can rely on them for some quality Thrash that can stand without blushing of same on the same shelf besides the German gems Pleasure To Kill and Extreme Aggressions. If only Ventor would sing a little bit like in the classic Riot Of Violence and the album had a classic KREATOR artwork.