i never was a big kreator fan. in fact, i didn't know anything the band ever released since this year's sommer. but from the beginning, i had a ticket for this year's elbriot festival in hamburg. it's a one-day-festival with one stage and last year was a blast. bands like august burns red, amon amarth and especially life of agony made this day really memorable to me. this year's line up didn't really do anything for me but one exception.
mastodon was on the billing and i was thrilled. i pretty much bought the ticket solely for this band. sometime at the end of july their was an announcement on the festival page that mastodon had to cancel all their remaining euro shows due to personal matters. aaarrgghh! now i had to find something to make this event worthwhile to me. the only band on the billing i was interested in checking out and which i didn't know previously was kreator.
of course i know that kreator is one of the three big german thrash bands next to destruction and sodom, but i never was keen to listen to anything. i checked some stuff of 'hordes of chaos' on the net and was pretty surprised at how cool this was. the right dosage of thrash energy and really catchy melodies. i bought the cd box set for next to nothing and at the festival the kreator thrashed everything in their way. i really enjoyed it!
so when i was on a record shopping spree in hamburg last month with a friend, i couldn't pass this one up. it's their latest record on nuclear blast. although 'phantom antichrist' might be a bit more melody-driven than 'hordes...' and, as i read, more than all their other releases up to this point, it's a very good metal record to me. i enjoy it from first tune to the last. not one weak song. check the title track here. the presentation is lovely, too. great artwork all around and nice semi-translucent, almost highlighter yellow vinyl. nuclear blast. 2012.