The Unholy Trinity of 1986, Part 2 - Kreator - Pleasure to Kill

Today I continue my reviews of the Unholy Trinity of 1986 with my personal favorite of the trio, Kreator’s “Pleasure to Kill.”

I remember back in 2006 when I first got this album; I was blown away by the sheer brutality of the music this German trio had created. Well, ten years later, and this album still remains one of the most brutal pieces of metal I’ve ever heard – and this is coming from someone who has heard (and owns) many extraordinarily intense albums like Morbid Saint’s “Spectrum of Death” (you can read my review below) and Demolition Hammer’s “Epidemic of Violence”. In fact, many death metal bands (like Morbid Angel) took inspiration from this album because of the sheer intensity.

The album starts off with a soft introduction called “Choir of the Damned”, which has many melodic guitar parts and synthesizers to deceive the listener into believing that the rest of the album will be similar to it. However, once the next track, “Ripping Corpse” comes on, said listener gets hit with a blow of metal that crushes with the force of ten thousand bricks, and it never lets up for the rest of the album. It’s worth noting that the musicianship is a little bit unrefined; it seems as if the band were just trying to play as fast and heavy as they possibly could. However, the sheer brutality and memorability of the songs makes up for it.

There are songs on here like “Death Is Your Savior”, the title track, “Riot of Violence” and “Under the Guillotine” that are almost guaranteed to get the head banging, while the three bonus tracks (from the “Flag of Hate” EP) are excellent in their own right, and it shows that Kreator could write long thrash songs that are compelling throughout. Really, every song is great. It’s worth noting that drummer Ventor sings “Death Is Your Savior”, “Riot of Violence” and “Command of the Blade” while vocalist/guitarist Mille Petrozza sings the rest.

Overall, this is an album that deserves all of the respect it gets, but it can be a bit much for someone new to metal. However, if one feels like he or she can handle the intensity, it would be a very worthwhile addition to the collection. In short: essential.