Christian Giesler

Along with Destruction, Sodom and Tankard, they are credited as one of the "Big Four" of Teutonic thrash metal, responsible for developing and popularizing the German thrash metal scene as well as pioneering the then-burgeoning death metal and black metal genres during the mid-1980s.

Kreator is a German thrash metal band from Essen, formed in 1982.

Their current lineup consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Miland "Mille" Petrozza, drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil, lead guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö, and bassist Frédéric Leclercq.

The band's lineup has changed multiple times throughout its 42-year career, most noticeably with their bassists and lead guitarists.

The band was formed as Metal Militia in 1982 in Essen, Germany and then Tyrant.

Later they used the title Tormentor until 1984, when they changed to its current name Kreator.

The original lineup featured lead vocalist/guitarist Mille Petrozza, drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil, and bassist Rob Fioretti.

Kreator recorded their debut album, Endless Pain (1985), in just ten days.

The band hired then-future Sodom guitarist Michael Wulf for the album's tour to play lead, while Petrozza switched to rhythm guitar.

They gained a large underground fanbase in the international thrash metal community, with their second studio album Pleasure to Kill (1986) regarded as an influential album of the genre.

Wulf was in the band for a few days but, contrary to the liner notes, he never played on the band's second album, Pleasure to Kill (1986), which is widely considered a thrash classic and a big influence on the death metal genre.

It would not be until 31 years after its release that Pleasure to Kill entered the German album charts.

Produced by Harris Johns (Sodom, Helloween, Voivod), the album showed the band growing in talent and technical ability.

The song "Flag of Hate" became a concert standard, and the band became one of the most promising up-and-coming European metal acts.

The band started their first tour ever (before the release of Pleasure to Kill, they had only played five gigs total); they played their first shows outside of Germany in the fall of 1986, supporting Destruction and Celtic Frost, and in the spring of 1987, they toured the US for the first time, opening for Voivod on their Killing Technology tour.

Kreator's first EP, Flag of Hate, was also released in 1986, and around this time, Jörg "Tritze" Trzebiatowski had joined the band.

Many of their subsequent albums — including Terrible Certainty (1987), Extreme Aggression (1989) and Coma of Souls (1990) — were also highly acclaimed.

In 1987, Kreator released their third studio album, Terrible Certainty, which is often considered a high-quality Kreator album as the arrangements on the album were more complex and the tempos more varied.

The album featured another hit "Behind the Mirror", and the band's popularity continued to grow and a video for "Toxic Trace" received airplay on MTV.

They managed to find enough time and money (coming from the concerts) to finance another EP, Out of the Dark... Into the Light.

By this point, Kreator had graduated to headlining their own tours, as well as playing at theaters and arenas with bands such as Megadeth, Voivod, Overkill, D.R.I. and Holy Terror.

Despite being an influential band, as well as one of the first European thrash metal acts to sign to a major label (signing to Epic Records in 1988), Kreator would not achieve mainstream popularity until later albums, including their thirteenth studio album Phantom Antichrist (2012) and its follow-up Gods of Violence (2017), both of which charted highly in many countries, with the latter reaching number one on the German charts.

Their latest studio album, Hate Über Alles, was released on 10 June 2022, and the band is currently working on new material for a follow-up album.

Kreator has achieved worldwide sales of over two million units for combined sales of all their albums, making them one of the best-selling German thrash metal bands of all time.

Berlin based independent record label Noise Records licensed Kreator for the territories outside of Europe and Japan to the major label Epic Records in 1988.

Their fourth studio album and debut with Epic (for limited territories) Extreme Aggression, recorded in Los Angeles, became a metal hit in Europe upon its release in 1989; however, the album would not enter the German album charts until 28 years after its release.

Continuing the Terrible Certainty formula while showing the band still progressing musically, and with better production by the well-regarded Randy Burns (also Megadeth, Possessed, Nuclear Assault, Death, Dark Angel, among others), the album featured the band's first major singles, the title track, "Betrayer" and the radio-only "Love Us or Hate Us", gaining support from the Southern California radio station KNAC, and the video for "Betrayer" receiving airplay on MTV's Headbangers Ball.

This – as well as playing with bands like King Diamond, Raven, Coroner, Suicidal Tendencies, Death and Sadus – greatly expanded their popularity outside of Germany.

Also in 1989, German director Thomas Schadt made a documentary about Kreator (focusing on the social aspect of heavy metal in the Ruhr Area) titled Thrash Altenessen (named after the band's hometown, a suburb of Essen).

Tritze left Kreator after Extreme Aggression.

In 1990, with new guitarist Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik (also formerly of Sodom), the band released their fifth studio album Coma of Souls, again produced by Burns.

The album was not quite as praised as the band's previous few albums (many felt the album was "rushed" and repetitive), but still managed sell and maintain popularity quite well, with the singles "When the Sun Burns Red" and "People of the Lie" becoming hits.

The early 1990s brought a decline in the popularity of traditional thrash metal.

With many other thrash bands such as Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax changing their style by incorporating more melodic elements into their compositions, Kreator began experimenting with industrial and groove metal around this time.

The result was Renewal, released in 1992, which featured heavy death metal and industrial influences.

While reaching a newer audience, the band upset many longtime fans, accusing them of "selling out".

The band experienced a decline in popularity as the result of the backlash against the album.

Petrozza and Reil are the only two original members left in Kreator, although the latter took a break from the band from 1994 to 1996.

Yli-Sirniö has been the lead guitarist of Kreator since 2001, while Leclercq joined in 2019 as the replacement of Christian "Speesy" Giesler, who had been a member of the band since 1994.

Kreator has released fifteen studio albums, two EPs, two live albums and three compilation albums.