Artist: Kreator
Title: Hordes Of Chaos
Type: Album
Label: SPV Records
I don’t know what, or who has pissed Mille off so much, but one thing is for sure, whoever it was I really wouldn’t want to be there to witness what happens when he confronts him. Hordes of Chaos is one mighty exercise in pure, unadulterated rage, alright. Of course, rage would be the secret ingredient that often spells the difference between a good thrash album and a great one, although there is a fine line which it seems Kreator have crossed with this album. I’m sure most of us can relate to this; to being so blinded by rage that everything in view is tinted with a screen of garish red. When all traces of intellect and rationality simply go walkabout and leave you face to face with your only loyal friend anger as you retort to kicking doors, punching bus shelters and screaming out a succession of cuss words which hold little logic to the recipient. In this state, suddenly a simple task like typing an e-mail becomes one of insurmountable proportions as you wonder, while you punch the keyboard senseless, why the words aren’t coming out as you intend them to. Suppose that you wrote and recorded an album under these conditions. It would undoubtedly be filled with a fountain of pure anger, but it would also sound hurried. It would sound, well; it would sound like Hordes Of Chaos. The antagonism is there, but that’s about all there is. As Mille confronts his inner fury, it seems that the rest of the ingredients required to make a good album have literally been left on the shelf.
After a couple of listens, I was left feeling unsure about this album although considering the possibility that it could be a grower, I persevered. Persevered, hoping, and waiting for the moment when it would all click nicely into place and I could scuttle on over to my computer to give the positive review I so very much wanted to be able to give this band. As a Kreator fan, it really pains me to have to write this review, but at the same time it would be unfair to encourage folk to spend their hard earned cash on this album without at least having some kind of warning of what they are getting from this. ‘Escalation’ ascends into a chaotic furore of clattering drums and frantic riffs beneath the raucous, headache inducing shouts. There are some really mean and ugly riffs on tracks like ‘Radical Resistance’ and a barrage of double kick drumming on ‘To The Afterborn’. The trouble is that this is all very much played out on one level with little light and shade and nothing that really grabs you into the music and whips you round by the hair.
I shall make no pretence over my preference for the older and rawer thrash sounds, although I am always open to hear a decent album utilising more of a modern style. Their last album had some genuinely decent tracks such as ‘Impossible Brutality’ and ‘Suicide Terrorist’ which really struck with considerable impact. This just reeks of a band that has run, not out of steam, but certainly out of ideas. If you are after a good example of a modern album by a classic band, check out the new Destruction album instead.
http://www.kreator-terrorzone.de
Luci Herbert
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