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KREATOR
Hate Über Alles

Nuclear Blast (2022)
Rating: 7/10

One cannot argue with the fact that Teutonic metalheads Kreator, along with fellow countrymen Sodom, Destruction and Tankard, are still going strong and putting out reasonable material.

I could be one of those people accused of living in the past and dismissing a lot of the albums recorded over the last 25 years by these bands, but they’ve remained as figureheads within the genre. While Sodom and Destruction have attempted to remain thrash, albeit generic and often forgettable at times, there’s no blaming for Kreator who have experimented with their sound and progressed with those Gothic streaks and melodic arrangements.

Of course, the old fusty die-hard fans snorted in derision at such pallid pathways, demanding another Pleasure To Kill without realising that Kreator just aren’t those young lads anymore, and to go back to even attempt to re-create such a legendary thrash opus would be blasphemous.

So, where do bands go? Well, it’s only natural an outfit like Kreator should experiment – for better or for worse – but it will please the thrashier souls to find that this new record is more of a speedier affair at times, which last opus Gods Of Violence hinted at.

Yes, there are still moments where the band tries something different, such as the tribal dabbling on the introduction to ‘Crush The Tyrants’. One thing however which remains ever-present in Kreator’s sound is of course the immaculate production and the clean guitar tone which comes to the fore in the raging title track, an out and out thrash holocaust of flailing percussion and Mille Petrozza’s distinctive dry yaps. The chorus is anthemic, something the band has mastered over the decades, but most importantly this is Kreator speeding like it is Extreme Aggression again… well, sort of.

It’s not the only time they rattle the bones of the listener, even if at times such thorny structures are angled around more traditional elements such as the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal-tinged ‘Become Immortal’ or the slower ‘Strongest Of The Strong’. So you’ll always get different flavours with Kreator because they are just too damn talented to rattle off a straight-up thrash record, but if you want that bristly aggression then look no further than ‘Killer Of Jesus’ where kudos go to percussive beast Ventnor.

Kreator remains a clinical, precise metal outfit whatever route they take, but it’s also no surprise then that ‘Strongest Of The Strong’ is a tad too cheesy and harkening back to some of the band’s more melodically catchy tunes.

‘Pride Comes Before The Fall’ continues the theme, except this time Mille opts for a cleaner approach vocally and I’m not on board. ‘Midnight Sun’ might also grate on the nerves of those who’ve been critical of Kreator’s all-too often slips into the experimental. The track begins well with cold, clinical hammering, but the female vocals from Sofia Portanet seem intrusive, almost out of place amidst the metallic tirade and better suited to a Cradle of Filth song. Meanwhile, album closer ‘Dying Planet’, for its seven-minute duration, is just uninspiring, a bland slog in fact.

With Hate Über Alles, Kreator is still commentating on the abundant injustices bestowed upon the world by crank leaders and the likes, but I was just expecting such retaliation to be angrier. There are many groove-led tracks, a peppering of gang chants and bucket loads of melodious steel, but rarely is the attack full on thrash.

Die-hard fans will rave about this new album, the band’s 15th, but when all is said and done it’s still pretty much what I expected from these veterans and so to dish out a higher rating would be disrespectful to the back catalogue. Kreator remains solid and creative, but just not gritty enough to make the hate seem genuine.

Neil Arnold

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