The titans of Teutonic, Kreator will be heading to Australia in less than two weeks on a double-bill with California’s Death Angel. If this Australian tour is anything to guage by frontman Mille Petrozza’s words, the thrash kids are in for a treat.
It’s going to be so much fun because we’ve played with Death Angel before. We were touring with them over here in Europe and they’re good friends with us. They’re a great band, amazing live and it’s always fun to play with them. They’re really cool.
Mille also adds: It’s a big challenge to go on after a band like Death Angel (laughs)!
Kreator are touring behind their latest recording (and thirteenth album), “Phantom Antichrist”. Since 2001’s “Violent Revolution”, Kreator’s music has tastefully evolved from its 1980s thrash metal roots, incorporating more progressive and melodic influences. With “Phantom Antichrist”, Kreator have upped the ante in their songwriting once again, a challenge which Mille claims to enjoy taking. Even after thirty years of writing metal.
I listen to so many different styles and everything I listen to is kind of shown on the record, y’know? We have a huge range of influences! You have to be creative and do what you like from the inside. Music has to come from your heart and it can’t be faked, otherwise it would get boring (laughs)! I mean you can only write “Extreme Aggression” or “Pleasure to Kill” once in your lifetime, and we’ve already done that!
Kreator have worked with a number of big-name producers over the years; Harris Johns, Andy Sneap, Randy Burns, and even Mille himself has taken on the production duties with some of Kreator’s releases. I ask Mille what it was like to work with producer Jens Bogren for the first time on the latest record.
He’s a great guy. He’s got a strange working schedule; he wants the band to be up and at the studio at 8 o’clock in the morning, and record until seven at night. That was something I had to get used to at first, but he’s probably one of the best producers I’ve ever worked with.
We recorded everything live in the studio as a band, but we’d only keep the drums and the bass. I think to record with four people in the room always gives a different sort of feel, a sort of magic almost. The interaction between four musicians is always a little different instead of having each member play to a click.
After this Australian tour, the Teutonic thrashers will embark on the Summer festival circuit, before playing some more European shows, and begin writing for another album. Before we close off, Mille excitedly reassures me that after five years, everyone’s patience for Kreator’s return to Australia will be duly rewarded.
I think as a thrash metal fan you couldn’t ask for a heavier night than Kreator & Death Angel on the one bill. It’s definitely going to be a massacre, and everyone will go home satisfied!
KREATOR & DEATH ANGEL TOUR DATES:
MELBOURNE – Wednesday April 16 @ The Billboard
ADELAIDE – Thursday April 17 @ HQ
SYDNEY – Friday April 18 @ Manning Bar (w/Metreya)
BRISBANE – Saturday April 19 @ The HiFi (w/Malakyte)
PERTH – Sunday April 20 @ Amplifier
