{"id":6040,"date":"2012-06-05T00:00:48","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T00:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=6040"},"modified":"2013-07-20T12:00:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-20T12:00:06","slug":"feature-kreator-06-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-kreator-06-12\/","title":{"rendered":"KREATOR – United In Hate (June 2012) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

KREATOR – United In Hate<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nJune 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kreator (l-r): Sami Yli-Sirni\u00f6, J\u00fcrgen Reil, Mille Petrozza and Christian Geisler<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Essen, Germany-based thrash metal outfit Kreator\u2019s relationship with Hanover, Germany-based label SPV Records lasted for three studio full-length affairs in the shape of September 2001\u2019s Violent Revolution<\/em>, January 2005\u2019s Enemy Of God<\/em>, and January 2009\u2019s Hordes Of Chaos<\/em><\/a>. SPV submitted an application for insolvency on May 25th, 2009, Kreator consequentially inking a worldwide contract with Nuclear Blast Records. The signing was publicly revealed on February 9th, 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cSPV was very, very supportive during Violent Revolution<\/em> and Enemy Of God<\/em>, but also for Hordes Of Chaos<\/em> they did everything they could,\u201d stresses Mille Petrozza, vocalist, guitarist and co-founder of Kreator. \u201cUnfortunately though, when they had those problems was right when our record came out \u2013 right afterwards. In the beginning it was really, really good, but then everything fell apart and we needed to get away. I love those people; those people at SPV were great to us, and helped us so much. We owe them so much, but it just wasn\u2019t possible to continue with the label. It isn\u2019t as strong as it used to be, and we need the strongest label for our band to reach all of our fans. We have a worldwide fanbase, and we want all of our fans to get our album. I don\u2019t need to receive letters from fans like \u2018I can\u2019t find your album\u2019 or something \u2013 it\u2019s just not what I want. Nuclear Blast in my opinion are stronger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked to every metal label there is, and we even talked to some other labels. Nuclear Blast made the most sense, really. We\u2019ve known those people for years and years, and they\u2019ve even come to our shows. We were friends with a lot of those people before we got signed to Nuclear Blast, so it was just a natural thing to sign to Nuclear Blast. You\u2019ve got all metalheads working for Nuclear Blast, which is really, really helpful (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

13th studio full-length Phantom Antichrist<\/em><\/a> was recorded at Fascination Street Studios in Orebro, Sweden, the process beginning during January 2012. \u201cWe went there for six weeks in total,\u201d the frontman reveals. \u201cIt was winter time in Sweden, so there wasn\u2019t much to do other than recording the album anyway. The producer was Jens Bogren, and it all went great. In my opinion Jens is one of the best producers in this day and age, so we\u2019re happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sent him demo tapes and stuff, and he would comment on some of the stuff that he heard. He was really, really critical, especially with the song structures sometimes. If something went too long, he wanted to edit, to take something out. At the end of the day, it\u2019s always hard for a musician when you\u2019ve written a song, and somebody comes and butchers it. On the other hand though, it all made sense. At the end of the day, when we were listening to the alternative versions it was quite clear that he was right. He was mostly right. There was one part where he was making a song longer, which was very surprising. Most of the time though, he shortened the songs. He didn\u2019t make them worse, but actually better. That wasn\u2019t everything he did though, because he did a lot for the feel of the music. He would let us play the whole album in a live situation. We went in a room and recorded the whole album live just for the vibe, to get a certain feel. Like a band feel, for the Kreator\u2019ish feel to it. I think that really helped to make this whole album sound very organic, very brutal, and in-your-face really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boasting shortened compositions suggests Phantom Antichrist<\/em> is a more focused outing. \u201cIf you asked me to use one or two words to describe the album, I don\u2019t know which words I would use,\u201d Mille admits. \u201cI would say it comes from the heart. Of course it\u2019s focused; every album that we do is focused. I would say it isn\u2019t one-dimensional. It has a lot to offer; there\u2019s a lot of melodic parts, and there\u2019s also a lot of speed parts and fast thrash metal parts. It\u2019s typical Kreator stuff, but there\u2019s also something more to it. We tried some new stuff, but without adding an orchestra or something. It\u2019s all guitars, drums, and bass. The only part where we had extra musicians coming in was in a song called \u2018Civilisation Collapse\u2019 where we had percussionists playing with us, and that was really cool. That gave the song a different dimension. It went fine. I\u2019d say that the album is like a rollercoaster; it\u2019s not only fast, it\u2019s not only heavy, it\u2019s not only brutal… It\u2019s metal (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

The record has been touted as Kreator\u2019s most diverse to date. \u201cMaybe it is,\u201d the axeman muses. \u201cIt depends on what you consider to be diverse. There\u2019s definitely a lot going on on the album, yeah. There are a lot of things happening; a lot of parts, and a lot of emotion. Maybe it is the most diverse Kreator album.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The death of late Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden spawned title cut \u2018Phantom Antichrist\u2019. \u201cIt was inspired by something I read when they killed him, about how they threw his dead body into the ocean even though there\u2019s no such thing as a sea burial in the Muslim religion,\u201d Mille divulges. \u201cThat inspired the title but the song is about a change of awareness, really. It\u2019s about the Phantom Antichrist<\/em> who comes to Earth, destroys everything, and starts a new world. Only the title was inspired by this Osama Bin Laden thing \u2013 it\u2019s not about that. The inspiration came from a real source \u2013 something that took place in real life \u2013 and that inspired me to write fiction-based lyrics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Death To The World\u2019 concerns the destruction of planet Earth. \u201cIt definitely describes how we treat the planet at this point in time,\u201d the singer confirms. \u201cWe\u2019ve always written about stuff that moves us rather than coming up with too much fantasy stuff. We\u2019re not the kind of band that writes Lord Of The Rings<\/em>-style lyrics. We write about things that we really think are important, and some of those things are based in reality and politics even sometimes. I\u2019d say that having this almost four-year break after Hordes Of Chaos<\/em> helped to really recharge our batteries and start collecting new topics for new music, rather than coming off tour and going straight into the studio like some bands do. We took almost a year off where we only played a couple of festivals, and that was about it. We took time to write the record. I think that\u2019s important, to actually go out and live your life for awhile, go back, and then have inspiration for new songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018From Flood Into Fire\u2019 is a number about staying true, and sticking together. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to describe the lyrics,\u201d Mille confesses. \u201cIt\u2019s almost a personal song ; it could be about friendship, or could be about someone that you really, really respect, or someone that you even love or something. It could be anything. They\u2019re more poem kind of lyrics. It\u2019s hard for me to describe what the song is really about. It\u2019s about believing in what you believe. I think the lyrics just explain themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe verse riff was something that I had written for Hordes Of Chaos<\/em>, but it didn\u2019t make the album because the rest of the song wasn\u2019t as strong. I always liked the beat of the song. We had a song on Violent Revolution called \u2018Servant In Heaven \u2013 King In Hell\u2019. The beat is very similar to that song, and I really liked the epic vibe of the song. What I really like about the song is the middle part where it\u2019s a Glenn Tipton \/ KK Downing (Judas Priest guitarists) kind of solo; it\u2019s a back and forth, questioning and answering kind of solo part, and a thrash part and everything. It\u2019s definitely a diverse song, with a lot happening. That was only the part, the verse riff of \u2018From Flood Into Fire\u2019 and the title also. The song is totally different though; the old version is totally, totally different. I still have a demo of the old version, but it\u2019s not like a leftover. There was only one part that I thought was really, really strong. It was one of the songs I had planned for the last album, but I couldn\u2019t finish it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kreator mainman inevitably has old riffs lying around, as do the majority of guitarists. \u201cSome I have on my computer still, and some I have in my head still,\u201d he verifies. \u201cThere\u2019s one whole song recorded for Hordes Of Chaos<\/em> that will never come out because I couldn\u2019t write lyrics for it. It\u2019s based on lyrics, words. The song wasn\u2019t too bad but I couldn\u2019t find any lyrics for it, strong words for it. We recorded it in the studio during the last recording session. That song was just never released because I wasn\u2019t happy with the chorus. I couldn\u2019t find a strong chorus for the song, but the rest of it was really good. The chorus just wasn\u2019t strong enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could rework that song in future. That\u2019s what happened with \u2018From Flood Into Fire\u2019 in a way. Then again though, you tend to forget about these things because you\u2019re too busy working on new stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

An acoustic introduction inaugurates \u2018United In Hate\u2019, the cut subsequently launching into customary thrash. \u201cThe acoustic intro is just an acoustic intro, really,\u201d Mille chuckles. \u201c\u2018United In Hate\u2019\u2019s intro piece was almost inspired by Mercyful Fate, old Metallica stuff. I always liked the acoustic parts on classic metal songs; they start with acoustic parts, and then go into a full-on thrash metal song. That\u2019s what \u2018United In Hate\u2019 is about. It\u2019s a lyrical statement, basically. It\u2019s about staying true to metal, staying true to your lifestyle, and just staying true to what you believe in no matter what other people say. This is what \u2018United In Hate\u2019 is about. It starts off slow, really slow. It starts off very melodic.\u201d<\/p>\n

A less thrash oriented introduction additionally inaugurates \u2018Your Heaven, My Hell\u2019. \u201cJust in general, we did everything that was necessary for a song,\u201d the axe-slinger notes. \u201cIf the song demanded a slow part, then we wrote a slow part for the song. If the song demanded thrash metal, even death metal-ish parts… We would just let the song lead us. The songs just happened sometimes. I\u2019d say that the beginning for \u2018Your Heaven, My Hell\u2019 was obviously influenced by Iron Maiden, but it also has a little bit of a Fields Of The Nephilim touch to it. I\u2019m very, very influenced by those classic English bands. Not only metal, but also English new wave bands from that era like Fields Of The Nephilim, Sisters Of Mercy, The Cure, and Bauhaus. Those were some of my favourite bands when I grew up, and they still are. You can tell when I write something like the beginning of \u2018Your Heaven, My Hell\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kreator (l-r): Christian Geisler, J\u00fcrgen Reil, Mille Petrozza and Sami Yli-Sirni\u00f6<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\u2018Your Heaven, My Hell\u2019 is anti-religious in sentiment. \u201cIt\u2019s about a kid that is growing up in a very Catholic environment, and he gets raped by a priest when he was a kid,\u201d Mille discloses. \u201cWhen he then grows up he takes revenge on all religion, and wants to destroy all religion. It\u2019s also a fictional story I came up with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a fan of any religion. I have a certain opinion about religion in general. I think we live in the year 2012, and it should be absolutely obsolete if you know what I mean. But it\u2019s not, and I know why. There are a lot of people making money with this, with people looking for the truth or whatever. For that reason it won\u2019t go away, but when I was a kid growing up I thought in the year 2000 things would be different than they were in the 16th century (laughs). Things like religion to me aren\u2019t necessary, because they only cause bad things. A lot of people take power and hope from it, but I think it also causes a lot of wars and separates people. That\u2019s basically what it does.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Iron Maiden influence flavours swansong cut \u2018Until Our Paths Cross Again\u2019. \u201cOh yeah, big time,\u201d the vocalist concedes. \u201cBig time. \u2018Phantom Antichrist\u2019\u2019s B-side is \u2018Number Of The Beast\u2019 by Iron Maiden of course. Them, Judas Priest, and early thrash metal are our biggest influences. It\u2019s very obvious of course, especially in a song like \u2018Until Our Paths Cross Again\u2019. It\u2019s not a tribute to Maiden, but I\u2019m the first one to admit that we\u2019re very influenced by classic metal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we wrote the whole album, there were two songs that were… We knew that \u2018Phantom Antichrist\u2019 would be the first song, and we knew that \u2018Until Our Paths Cross Again\u2019 would be the last song because of the title. The song is about the circle of life and death, and it could also be an ending song, almost a farewell song in a way (laughs). It was clear from when we wrote this song that it was gonna be the last song.\u201d<\/p>\n

A seven-inch vinyl single version of title track \u2018Phantom Antichrist\u2019 included a cover interpretation of Iron Maiden\u2019s \u2018The Number Of The Beast\u2019 (originally from the March 1982 album of the same name). \u201cEvery time we go into the studio, we fuck around with some of our favourite songs,\u201d Mille exclaims. \u201cWe did \u2018Number Of The Beast\u2019 for this one. There are certain songs that you shouldn\u2019t touch, that you can\u2019t do better than the original, and we didn\u2019t even try that. We played the song in our own style. I hope when people hear that, they don\u2019t even notice that it\u2019s Kreator playing an Iron Maiden song. It\u2019s not Kreator trying to be Iron Maiden (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Handling guitar alongside the frontman is Sami Yli-Sirni\u00f6. \u201cSometimes Sami comes up with some melodic stuff,\u201d he begins. \u201cI\u2019ll write a part, and I\u2019ll ask Sami \u2018Can you do something on this? Can you write something melodic on it?\u2019 I\u2019ll have some stuff that I have in mind, I\u2019ll play it to him, and then he\u2019ll come up with something really, really cool. I\u2019ll leave him room for his own interpretation of the song. That\u2019s how the guitar tracks come about, how the songs basically work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthemic choruses are a hallmark of Kreator\u2019s material. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to answer that question, because it\u2019s just something that happens,\u201d Mille figures. \u201cWith most songs that I write, I have the choruses first or an idea for the chorus, or some words. I always want the songs to be catchy, so I\u2019m really old school when it comes to that. I want people to sing along in a live situation, so I make sure that the choruses are very catchy. It takes some time, but it\u2019s just something that happens. The songs need to grow. Sometimes you have a chorus part, or just a verse part. Like I said, some songs take more than four years until they\u2019re finally finished. Like \u2018From Flood Into Fire\u2019, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wes Benscoter designed the cover artwork for Phantom Antichrist<\/em>. \u201cI saw the cover Wes did for the last Autopsy album (May 2011\u2019s Macabre Eternal<\/em>),\u201d the guitarist informs. \u201cI did some research, and found out that he also did work for bands like Black Sabbath<\/a>, Slayer<\/a>, and all these bands that I like. I like all of his work, and think he has a great style. I\u2019m a big fan of the horror comics from the 70s and 80s, and he has that style. It\u2019s really cool.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI gave him some titles, maybe five titles. He sent me a rough sketch for the album cover art, and I really liked it. I told him to go ahead, and that was basically it. I only saw the very first sketch \u2013 a pencil sketch \u2013 and then I saw the complete artwork. He was totally free to do whatever he liked, and this is Wes\u2019 interpretation of what Phantom Antichrist<\/em> means to him. It\u2019s his thing, basically. I\u2019m really happy with the cover though.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Iron Destiny\u2019 serves as an exclusive bonus track in Japan. \u201cI have to admit that that wasn\u2019t my decision,\u201d Mille professes. \u201cJapanese distributors always demand extra songs. For this album we recorded a total of 12 songs, including the Maiden cover. Those two songs were supposed to be on the record, but when we listened back to all of the tracks we felt that \u2018Iron Destiny\u2019 didn\u2019t fit the album. It\u2019s a very metal\u2019ish song; it\u2019s almost a traditional metal song, and it didn\u2019t fit the album. It\u2019s not that it isn\u2019t strong or anything, but it wouldn\u2019t have felt right for this record. We decided to not have it on the record, so that song was free to be used as bonus material for Japan. You don\u2019t write a song, and have it in the back of your mind \u2018Oh, this is gonna be a bonus song.\u2019 It just happens like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bonus DVD included with deluxe editions of Phantom Antichrist<\/em> features live performance footage taken from 2008 and 2011 Wacken Open Air appearances. \u201cThe footage was really strong and from very good concerts,\u201d the axeman enthuses. \u201cWe always wanted to use it, but we didn\u2019t want to just put out a Live At Wacken<\/em> DVD because I think that\u2019s kind of boring. We chose the projections \u2013 the images that we have \u2013 from our live show, and edited them together with the Wacken footage. It\u2019s like a live show, but you can also see what\u2019s usually in the background when we\u2019re playing. This footage is more like the stuff off of the old video clips, stuff that we just created for certain songs. It\u2019s nice. I\u2019ve seen the whole thing just recently, and it\u2019s really strong. It could\u2019ve been a real, regular DVD release, but we decided to have it as a bonus disc for our fans. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe edited it though because of the fact that we had already released two DVDs. We decided not to repeat ourselves, so there are certain songs that are from the 2008 concert like \u2018Europe After The Rain\u2019 and \u2018People Of The Lie\u2019 which we didn\u2019t play in 2011 to make it more interesting. There are some songs of course that were played at both concerts, because you always have to play \u2018Phobia\u2019 (from 1997\u2019s Outcast<\/em>) and stuff like that. Other than that though, we tried to make it not the same as the previous DVDs we\u2019ve recorded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phantom Antichrist<\/em> was released on June 1st, 2012 in all of Europe with the exception of the United Kingdom. The album was released in the United Kingdom on the 4th and on the 5th in North America, all through Nuclear Blast Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in June 2012. All promotional photographs by Heilemania.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KREATOR – United In Hate Anthony Morgan June 2012 Kreator (l-r): Sami Yli-Sirni\u00f6, J\u00fcrgen Reil, Mille Petrozza and Christian Geisler Essen, Germany-based thrash metal outfit Kreator\u2019s relationship with Hanover, Germany-based label SPV Records lasted for three studio full-length affairs in the shape of September 2001\u2019s Violent Revolution, January 2005\u2019s Enemy Of God, and January 2009\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[249],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kreator"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6040"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6143,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6040\/revisions\/6143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}