They may have just put out one of the most killer albums in recent memory with Krushers Of The World, but one thing you can’t say about Kreator‘s latest is that it’s a straight-up thrash metal record. It’s heavy as fuck, has death metal aspects sprinkled in throughout, and really takes pages from other metal subgenres to really create something badass and cohesive.
During a recent interview with Jorge Botasof Portugal’sMetal Global (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), Kreator vocalist and guitarist Mille Petrozza revealed the album’s unique style was by design because otherwise it would have made him “bored.” While speaking about Krushers Of The World, Petrozza said the drive to incorporate different styles of metal was baked into the album’s very core.
“I love metal. I love thrash metal. I love death metal. I love black metal. I love all kinds of metal, but I also love all kinds of music. So, to me, playing metal, being in a metal band, I always try to come up with a way where I can kind of be metal and be Kreator, but also put in influences from other genres and maybe different grooves, different vibes, rather than just releasing a thrash metal album from beginning to the end. I mean, we could do this — potentially, yes — but we would be bored and it wouldn’t come from the heart.
“And I think sometimes when you listen to some of the records that are coming out, it’s, like, sometimes people are forcing the old school, they’re forcing everything to sound like in the ’80s. But we’re not in the ’80s; it’s the ’80s. We can still have influences from the ’80s and we are a band that started in the ’80s, but for me personally, I would feel very underwhelmed if we would have to do an album that’s just thrash from the beginning to the end. It’s just me. And if you listen to our previous albums, it’s never like that. It’s always been a little bit of a balance.”
Despite his feelings about wanting to make things more their own, Petrozza said he understood why there are whole swaths of metal fans that live and die by their nostalgic feelings for certain time periods.
“I get it from an emotional point of view, because when you’re into music and you’re a music nerd, it’s all emotion, it’s all waves and it’s all beautiful harmonies and beats and the unity and everything that metal is about. And it’s beautiful. It’s amazing. But the old days are over. We’re never gonna get that back. And when you go to a Kreator concert or maybe some other bands, metal bands, that are around still from the ’80s, you get that back for a little bit when the old bands play older music or older songs. You get that back for a while. But trying to force whatever people are happy with — but I’m not; I just couldn’t do it… But I kind of get when there’s surprisingly a young audience that is trying to make the older bands — they want the older bands to sound like the ’80s. But I’m the same way. If I’m going to see Fields of the Nephilim or The Sisters of Mercy, I want them, of course, to play the old songs. But don’t mind the new songs. I’m also open [to hearing the] new songs.”