When you're following epic sets by three killer metal bands, two of which are also bona-fide legends in their own genres, you'd better have what it takes to back it up. Thankfully, this isn't a concern for Kreator: the German quartet has been ripping it up for forty years, playing killer shows across all continents and releasing a plethora of classic records. They are, without a doubt, THE greatest European thrash band and each tour/album cycle cements that legacy.
Still, it's almost shocking to see how hard they go. The term scorched earth was seemingly invented for this type of performance: unrelenting brutality, surgical precision, and a spectacular, nightmarish production that transports the audience into the fiery pits of hell.
Hot off the heels of a new record that's just as crushing krushing as the classics of their catalogue, surrounded by two monumental ghoulish figures, the band delivered a breathtaking performance of nearly two hours full of fire, brimstone, and rotting impaled heads, under the watchful eye of a towering satanic silhouette. In other words, another typical Tuesday night for the Germans.
Consequently, the pit immediately turned violent, vomiting bodies non-stop to the annoyance of security, and the relief of the older contingent (like yours truly) who thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle but felt rather glad to not find themselves in the melée... Walls of death, circle pits, crowd surfing, the whole shebang.
The setlist was unfuckithable, as they say. For the fans, there was no distinction between new tracks like "Krushers of the World" and classics like "Coma of Souls" or "Betrayer"... dark, aggressive and epic, their signature sound hasn't changed: they have spent four decades exploring evil in all its forms and spitting it back out in the face of audiences is standard procedure. What said audiences do with it, well now that's up to them isn't it?
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