Outcast --- Kreator --- 1995 (Gun)
One of the big three German thrash bands, Kreator's vocalist utilises that sort of hoarse screaming that makes you wonder what kind of problems he's going to have with his throat when he gets older, but at least it's intelligible. "Leave this world behind" kicks the album off in fine style with a big grinding metal guitar assault, and while it's not as fast as your average thrash metal band it's no slouch either, and heavy as hell. "Phobia" gives me a real sense of mid-eighties Maiden, chugging drums and screaming guitars and quite a lot of fun really. "Forever" is another slow and grindy song that I must say complements Mille Petrozza's voice perfectly.
"Black sunrise" is another slow one, but this time Petrozza's voice is "normal", very understated and low-key and you begin to wonder if this could be a balla --- nah. Silly thing to think really. It's a slow, crunching, brooding grinder sort of in the mould of Tiamat, but with edges sharp enough to draw blood. Nice guitar solo too. "Noncomformist" is the first time I've heard these guys hit any sort of groove and even then it's not as fast as I would expect a thrash band to be: Annihilator for example were much more heads-down than this. Great roaring guitars though and a good vocal, with a lot of energy and power.
"Enemy unseen" stomps all over the place with anger and frustration, but again it's a slow, in general, song, with none of the fretburning, fingerscorching guitar histrionics and galloping drums of other thrash metal bands. The title track is another slow grinder, quite Sabbath in its feel, and I'd have to say my favourite so far along with "Paranoia", while things finally kick up a gear with the uptempo "Stronger than before". Odd to hear vocoder, of all things, used on "Whatever it may take", though the song is a good heavy puncher, and the tempo hits up again with "Against the rest", another fine guitar-chugging track but ends more or less as it began in a slow, powerful grind with "A better tomorrow".
TRACKLISTING
1. Leave this world behind
2. Phobia
3. Forever
4. Black sunrise
5. Nonconformist
6. Enemy unseen
7. Outcast
8. Stronger than before
9. Ruin of life
10. Whatever it may take
11. Alive again
12. Against the rest
13. A better tomorrow
I'm not quite sure how to take Kreator. At least on the basis of this album they seem more almost doom metal than thrash; certainly few of their songs hit the kind of speed even Maiden practice, and I always thought (correct me if I'm wrong Batlord) that thrash metal was traditionally played as fast as possible?
That said, this is a pretty fine album and I'm glad I listened to it. I may sample more of Kreator's catalogue (should that be katalogue?) in time, and find this not to be typical of their output: perhaps their other albums are fast and heavy and deserve the description of thrash. For now though I'm thinking more a sort of slightly more uptempo doom, but certainly very impressive.
Read more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreator