Review: Kreator – Phantom Antichrist
Aug 09
Kreator – Phantom Antichrist
Review
If there’s one thing that can bring a smile to any headbanger’s face, it’s hearing a classic stand-by releasing an album that not only shows the band sticking to their guns, but doing so at the top of their game. And for the past handful of albums, Kreator has been making alot of headbagers smile. Even after a short period of experimentation in their career, which almost seemed necessary (and in the opinion of this reviewer, really were not that bad), the teutonic thrashers have retained every bit of the hard hitting riffage that made them a staple in the genre. The group’s newest effort, Phantom Antichrist, does well to prove this, seeming to distill all the facets that have made up the Kreator sound over the years: driving drums, catchy breakneck riffing, epic sounding chord progressions, and even some small glimpses into their Endorama days by the way of mainman Mille singing slow and low on certain interludes.
Appropriately enough for their signature call-to-arms sound, the album kicks off with a slow-building instrumental, Mars Mantra that sets the stage for the epic war songs to come before kicking into the in-your-face title track thrasher, featuring some great sounding drums that pummel through the mix with heavy blast beats. Vocalist Mille’s raspy, verse spitting voice sounds as good as ever and delivers his forceful lyrics just as fast as he does the often break-neck riffs. This charges seamlessly into another appropriately thrashy track, Death to the World, which features a very Kreator-sounding mix of staccato verses leading into the kind of slower, epic sounding, fist-raiser chorus that defines the majority of the offerings on the album. There are a few slower moments here, if they can be called as such, notably Your Heaven, My Hell, and a nice sounding classical guitar intro on United in Hate, but even then everything still comes heavy and punches hard. This is thanks in part to the album’s production, handled by the never-to-disappoint Jens Bogren at his Fascination Street studios, and who gets everything to sound as tight as possible while still retaining that raw, garage-bourne feel so inherent to the band’s thrash metal style. From Flood Into Fire is a good showcase for this, the melodic lead guitar parts cut through the mix perfectly, and the drums punch hard and clean.
On the whole, Kreator has once again produced the kind of album a metalhead would expect from one of the German Big Three, delivering hitting thrash accentuated with the band’s signature grand-scale, call to battle melodies. While it may not be a cornerstone record for the group, it is a solid addition to their already respectable catalog, and features some songs sure to be live staples for year to come and new favorites for even the most diehard classic Kreator fans. It’s always good to see a band like this, one of the originators of thrash metal, release music that not only stays true to their roots but pushes a modern refined sound. Here’s to the next one
8/10
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