Kreator, Carcass, Exodus, and Nails

Inspired by the likes of Black Sabbath, Metallica and Motorhead, the band took shape in 1982, with the original line up consisting of: Mille Petrozza (vocals, guitar), Jurgen “Ventor” Reil (drums) and Rob Fioretti (bass) firstly known as Tyrant and then Tormentor. The newly formed band released two demos “Blitzkrieg” in 1983 and “End of the World” in 1984.

In 1985, the band signed with the new German metal label Noise Records who encouraged the final name change and they settled on Kreator. It took them only ten days to record their debut album “Endless Pain” released later that year and created a huge buzz in the prominent underground metal scene emergent in Germany. With blistering and brutal thrash chords reverberating throughout the album, Kreator won an allegiance of fans. Promoting the album, the band added late Sodom guitarist Michael Wulf to play on the release tour.

In 1986 Kreator released their follow up album “Pleasure to Kill” which introduced the addition of guitarist Jorg ‘Tritze’ Trzebiatowski. The album considered a thrash classic demonstrated the band’s rapid progression of talent and technical ability, featuring the popular track “Flag of Hate” which made regular appearances on their live set lists. At the end of the year, the band released the three track EP “Flag of Hate”.

Releasing two albums and an EP between 1987-9, Kreator were given the opportunity to hop on tour with American thrash heavyweights Suicidal Tendencies on their North American tour which helped broaden the band’s appeal outside of Europe.

In 1989 the band featured in Thomas Schadt’s documentary “Thrash Altenessen” exploring the social effects of heavy metal in their local area. Following the release of their fourth album “Extreme Aggression”, Tritze departed in 2000 and was replaced by former Sodom guitarist Frank ‘Blackfire’ Gosdzik.

Whilst the 90’s became a pivotal point of genre experimentation for forerunners like Metallica and Anthrax in an attempt for commercial appeal, Kreator went against the grain delving deeper into death and industrial metal prominent in the 1992 album “Renewal”.

With a relentless touring schedule, it began to take a toll on the band as one by one they dropped out leaving Petrozza as the only original member. Fleeting member came and went and by the new millennia the line-up included: Christian ‘Speesy’ Giesler, Sami Yli-Sirnio and the return of Reil.

Over their extensive band history spanning decades, Kreator have become a beacon to many bands within the trash genre playing numerous festivals and sharing the stage with bands like: Napalm Death, Warbringer, King Diamond and Exodus. Kreator continue to provide electrifying, show-stopping performances ever enthused with an abundance of passion.

Carcass was first formed in 1985 by guitarist Bill Steer and drummer Ken Owen under the name Disattack. Joined by vocalist Sanjiv and bassist Jeff Walker, they changed the name of the band to Carcass; and in 1987, they recorded a demo called “Flesh Ripping Sonic Torment.” Shortly after, Sanjiv left the group so the remaining three members split vocal responsibilities for their album “Reek of Putrification,” which caught the attention of Radio 1 DJ, John Peel.

“Symphonies of Sickness,” their second album, was released in 1989 and featured more death metal than the previous album. While on tour for the album they had guitarist Michael Amott join them, eventually taking a permanent position in the band and helping with the composition of their next album, “Necrotism- Descanting The Insalubrious.” The band went through a bit of a sound change for their fourth album entitled “Heartwork” which was released in 1993. After its release they signed with Columbia Records. Starting in 1994 the band started to record their new album, “Swansong,” however, a controversy occurred between the label and the band causing the album to not be released until 1996. But the release of “Swansong” didn’t come before the band switched over to Earache Records and broke up for a brief time, but despite the success of “Swansong” the band could not continue together.

In September 2007 Carcass reformed with Amott, Steer, Walker and Daniel Erlandsson (who replaced Ken Owen). Their first show back in the public was the German heavy metal festival, “Wacken Open Air.” Their appearance was followed by a reunion tour around the world as well as appearances made at many festivals. In 2013 the band signed a deal with Nuclear Blast with a slated EP release of “Surgical Remission/Surplus Steel.”

With a career behind them that - on and off, with a few breaks - has now spanned more than thirty years, Exodus have proved to have had more longevity than many of their eighties heavy metal contemporaries, even if you have to concede that the lineup has by no means been stable down the years. As things stand, drummer Tom Hunting is the only founding member of the band to still be involved, although he only rejoined as recently as 2007; the rest of the present lineup includes longtime axeman Gary Holt on guitar, Steve Souza - around since 1986 - on vocals, Jack Gibson on bass and Lee Altus on guitar.

The band’s original lead guitarist was Kirk Hammett, now best known for being the longtime lead player in metal titans Metallica; James Hetfield’s men, along with Exodus and Testament, all hail from the Bay Area of California and are considered pioneers of the thrash metal genre. With a career spanning ten full-length records, countless tours and no fewer than five million albums sold, Exodus show no signs of slowing down; their 2014 release ‘Blood In, Blood Out’ met with fine reviews in the metal community and beyond, and was also their highest charting album in twenty-four years.