So many bands from Chile, let alone most other brutal thrash bands everywhere else in the world, owe these crazy pioneering Germans their lives. Released in 86, this legendary album pushed the boundary of extreme metal, exploring what would be the proto-death sound.
Forgive me for this major glazing if you feel my pick today is a cop-out, but after days of hearing so much Chilean death/thrash I had to spin this origin point lol. Sharing my fav of this historic album, though, in natural fashion I recommend the whole god damn thing, even the tacked-on EP Flag of Hate that was reissued/bundled together in 88.
Kreator’s older releases are pretty failsafe while I’d avoid their newer albums like hell. Live, they used to be quite a blast but honestly I am going to miss their upcoming concert despite the location being a 10 min footwalk from my flat just because of my fear of their playlist containing any of their latest “melodic” hippie shit. Which is a shame, remembering their performance in 1987 when I saw them live for the first time together with Sodom, Destruction (who just had released their breakthrough album “Infernal Overkill”) and Motörhead (It was a cold Thursday night in December in a small town in Germany, easy to meet the bands after the show and the three German bands behaved like arrogant assholes - shame on you Schmier, you suck! while Motörhead -with Philthy back on the drums, then- were real fun to meet. But I’m drifting off into Metal grampa world again…). I absolutely doubt to see any of that anger, energy and freshness from them nowadays.