KREATOR Endless Pain is the debut release from this long running German thrash band released back in 1985. Like the other German bands of the time the band recorded this on a shoe string budget. In comparison to the others in their scene (Sodom, Destruction) I have to say this is probably the most coherent of the releases put out.
The album opens up with “Endless Pain” and its a great statement of intent. The sound, however is a bit rough, but that’s cool. It kind of has that Venom vibe to it, but the guys have obviously taken it to a new extreme. The guitar playing is faster than Metallica and probably faster than that Slayer were doing at the time and far more musically accomplished than the early Sodom releases. This is the album that would have made heavy metal fans take the German thrash scene seriously.
What makes this even more amazing is that the band members themselves were around 17 – 18 years of age at the time and already creating music so much more precise and vicious than their European peers. “Total Death” kicks in and provides a bit of breathing room until we’re battered with another high speed assault with “Storm of the Beast”. Great riffage make this is a really enjoyable thrash attack. “Tormentor” and “Flag of Hate” are probably my fave tracks of the release as they’re a little simpler and have a catchy chorus and simpler feel whislt being total flat out thrash. The solo’s kinda fit in with that “Slayer” feel where they’re more there for texture rather than any real musical expressionism but thats cool. Infact I’ll expand on this and say I feel there’s a big Slayer influence on this especially when you compare “Show No Mercy” to this record. Its just faster and taken to the next level of extremity.
Overall this is a really cool album, and scary thing is it was just a hint at what was to come next from these thrash metal titans. From a marketing point of view it also had the best album cover as the early Sodom releases looked a little “B-Grade” this definitely would have taken the scene into a new level of professionalism as well. Do yourself a favour and
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