Gods Of Violence [DE-Version, Regio 2/ B]
Kreator

Five years after the release of their phenomenal 2012 release "Phantom Antichrist", German thrash metal legends Kreator have once again returned to unleash their newest batch of blasting, maximum, classic thrash metal goodness in "Gods of Violence" which sees the band of course doing what they do best.

I never thought that this group could release such an openly secondary album. Ambiguous, experimental, controversial - yes, but not secondary. Never. This was not until 2017. Moreover, the secondary nature awaits us already on a visual acquaintance with “Gods Of Violence” - on the cover we have the honor to see an undisguised reference to “South Of Heaven”, you know who. And the computer picture itself, frankly, is bad. Previously, Kreator did not allow themselves to do this. But enough about the design. There are a couple of very serious claims to the “Gods of violence” that cast doubt on the cultural and historical value of this work. The first is the sound. Citizens listeners, you can throw stones at me, but such a licked caramel-marshmallow sound for a normal evil thrash album is simply unacceptable. Basically. Yes, it is good, clean and more than modern, it allows you to hear all the guitar exercises, of which there are a lot of indecent. Such a sound would be adequately perceived on the album of some pavers or melodic death metallers, but not on the disk of the living trash patriarchs. It just doesn't fit. And the point. The second claim concerns the material itself. Where is the trash? And where are the hits? And if the first question can be answered more or less clearly, there are only two truly thrash songs on the album - this is “World War Now” and the Japanese bonus “Earth Under The Sword”. Even the “Totalitarian Terror", which begins with an explosive riff face, then crawls into it. In the rest of the material, we hear either power, or melodic death, or heavy. But with the hits, the situation is somewhat worse. In my opinion, only “Satan Is Real” draws on this proud title because of its chorus and the funniest clip that was shot on it. Songs of the “Phantom Antichrist” or “Civilization Collapse” level from the 2012 opus to “Gods Of Violence” are simply not there. But there is a lot of melody to the place and out of place. Petrozza and Finn weaved real lace from various guitar interludes and full solos. You don’t think, I’m not against the melodies, on the same “Phantom Antichrist” or “Enemy Of God” there were plenty of them too (I specifically do not compare with what Kreator did in the 80s and 90s), and there they looked organically. But on a fresh work, all this musical wealth seems empty, somewhat dull and in my head is not completely put off. For this reason, a reasonable question arises: “Well, why is this all?”

Kreator did it again with this album. Great songs are packed with aggression and punch. This album comes with Blu-ray concert. It is a bargain at this price.

Gods Of Violence delivers a faultless collection of songs played with wanton glee and irresistible punch by a band at the top of their game 35 years in.