KREATOR – Krushers Of The World

The German metal institution is back with their sixteenth studio album in forty years, with an album that will take a while to adjust to for old fans of the band.

Kreator Surprises for a Second Time

The band hailing from Essen, Germany, came a long way from its punk roots through the experimental nineties to a stable household name in Teutonic metal, consistently delivering the goods since Violent Revolution in 2001, which was only two years after the strange and unexpected dip into melodic, synthesizer-infused sounds of Endorama. Endorama was, even after the unusual Renewal album, a surprise for the fans and still is the “ugly duckling” in Kreator’s discography. Krushers Of The World may not be as shocking to metalheads around the world, but a surprise it is nonetheless.

A Step Towards the Mainstream

That means fans of the band have to be strong and give Krushers Of The World a couple of chances before they cast their judgement. Because after a very promising, heavy riffing intro follows a very melodic chorus in the opening track “Seven Serpents”, and if one listens closely it is obvious that Kreator has moved away from thrash to heavy metal. Even power metal elements are present in significant quantity to raise more than an occasional brow. And with track number two, “Satanic Anatchy”, the metamorphosis is complete and the former thrashers have arrived in a metal mainstream that has reaped great success for the last ten years.

No Harm In Trying to Be Successful

Mille Petrozza, singer and bandleader of Kreator, seems to have discovered his soft side. This does not come completely unexpected. The last album, Hate Über Alles, exhibited a tendency towards stronger melodies and less extreme sounds, but the consequence with which the transformation is executed is astonishing. Where the predecessor was sometimes criticized for songs not being memorable, that can certainly not be said for songs like “Satanic Anatchy”, “Tränenpalast”, where Britta Görtz of Hiraes, who has taken a big step into the limelight with her stand-in for Marcus Bischoff at various Heaven Shall Burn shows in 2025, takes over some vocal duties, or the slow title song, which is a pounding, catchy track that the listener can sing along to even during its first rotation. “Catchy”? Who would have thought that Mille would ever hear this attribute connected to his music again!

Not All Is Lost For Thrashfans

The closest comparison for the newly found style one can come up with would be bands like Warkings or Hammer King, a style of metal that draws sizable crowds and seems to be the new flavour of the twenties, and that has increasingly become a staple of festival billings in Europe. The final song, “Loyal To The Grave”, shows the end of the transformation, as it would fit perfectly with said bands. Maybe the next step is to perform in costumes, Arminius and his Germanic hordes would come to mind as a fitting theme, and that could even pave Kreator’s way into an opening slot for, say, Sabaton. Compared to great album closers like “The Ancient Plague”, the epic “Until Our Paths Cross Again” and “Death Becomes My Light”, and even last album’s strong “Dying Planet”, it is certainly a big disappointment.

Still, Kreator cannot shed its skin completely. After seventeen minutes, a first real thrash riff appears in “Barbarian”, and later several harder songs like “Deathscream” and “Psychotic Imperator” – try not to sing “Hordes Of Chaos” during the chorus! – still nod to the old Kreator. The new compositions still have a metal structure but are veiled with the soft silk of memorable refrains, and when that silk sounds like being pink, it is a step too far.

A Successful Attempt to Match the Zeitgeist

Maybe Mille has simply rediscovered his fondness for melodic metal, and even though the so far not mentioned songs “Become Immortal”, “Conquer And Destroy” and “Crush The Tyrants” still are a significant step away from Kreator’s signature thrash sound, Krushers Of The World is everything but a bad album. After the initial surprise, and after the expectations of really crushing riff attacks like Gods Of Violence or Enemy Of God have subsided, album number sixteen offers some strong tunes that will probably be well received on the upcoming tour. The stylistic change does not come completely out of the blue; in retrospect it becomes obvious that it is simply a final leap where the last albums only took a small step each into the direction of commerciality. Where it showed in a few songs, albeit increasingly over a decade, it culminates in an album that is consistent and could lead Kreator to new commercial heights. One may regret the departure from crunchy thrash that was Kreator’s trademark for twenty years, but maybe the band will gain a lot more followers with Krushers Of The World than they will disenchant.