Slayer

One of the highly-revered ‘big four’ of the thrash metal genre, alongside their contemporaries Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax, Slayer have always been defined by two thing; the ferocity and speed with which they play, and the deeply dark nature of their thematic approach and lyricism, where pretty much nothing has been off limits - everything from Satanism to necrophilia has cropped up over the course of their ten records to date. The group is currently comprised of King on guitar, bass-playing frontman Tom Araya, drummer Paul Bostaph and guitarist Gary Holt; founding guitar player Hannemann passed away last year. The band made their name with their third album, “Reign in Blood”, in 1986; that record’s kind-of title track “Raining Blood” is effectively their signature song.

They’ve continued to both entertain, influence and provoke in equal measure ever since; from (albeit inadvertently) managing to release a record entitled “God Hates Us All” on September 11th, 2001 to routinely being accused of Nazi sympathies, Slayer have certainly earned more than their fair share of notoriety, but it’s perhaps in terms of their huge influence on the genre of metal in general that they’ll be best remembered over time; everybody from System of a Down to Slipknot to Darkthrone have attributed some of their style to Slayer over the years, proving their towering stature within the metal community.

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.