By Avinash Mittur
Allow me to begin by saying that “Pleasure to Kill” is a very, very personal album for me. This isn’t a story of a social misfit, or a slacker who just wanted to play guitar all day. I was simply a junior in high school who wore band shirts and just wanted to get into a decent college. At the time, I was under a massive amount of pressure to succeed in many endeavors. Keeping my grades up, worrying about all of the standardized tests, extra-curricular activities, keeping my weight under control, and having an internship was starting to become too much for my mind to handle. Now, I had known of Kreator before; my friends recommended “Coma of Souls” and “Extreme Aggression” to me knowing that I was into old-school thrash metal, and their then-latest release “Hordes of Chaos” had been blasting through my iPod for a good while. However, when I picked up this album purely on a whim at the Amoeba Records in San Francisco, I had no idea what a bludgeoning aural assault it would inflict upon me.
From the second “Choir of the Damned” segued into “Ripping Corpse,” this album began to free me of all the pent up negative emotions life had been offering me until then. Despite its morbid lyrics, “Pleasure to Kill” became a positive outlet for me. Whenever I felt overwhelmed, I could put on any of its tracks and instantly feel better. Simply put, I owe so much to Kreator and this album; without it, I might have broken down an innumerable amount of times within that year instead of successfully working my way through it. When I saw the band on their 25th Anniversary Tour, and came to school the next day adorned with a “Pleasure to Kill” t-shirt, I never felt more proud to be a fan of heavy metal. What others saw as a image of tasteless violence I saw and connected with as a source of positive energy.
Now to look at this album from a historical and musical standpoint. “Pleasure to Kill” is quite simply, an incredibly monumental album and a masterpiece of pure violence and horror within metal music. Before this album, no one had gone to this album’s disturbing lengths of evil, both musically and lyrically. Since then, countless grindcore, black metal and death metal bands have adopted attributes of this album, the production, lyrics and guitarist/vocalist Mille Petrozza’s vocal style being but a few. Mille’s chaotic solos, while pedestrian on a technical level, were sonic batteries of terror that showed that thrash metal could make do without maximum guitar pyrotechnics. His riffing and rhythm guitar was also unique with thrash metal as there was very few palm-muted “chugging” riffs typical of American thrash bands to be found. His playing created a wall of sound, while his tone when soloing was given maximum distortion that made a grimy, yet piercing sound. Ventor, while still an imperfect drummer when it came to timing, gave a truly over-the-top performance filled with non-stop torrents of snare and bass drum hits. His very deep and raspy vocals could later be heard on a more intense level from many death metal bands that came up after this album’s release.
If the song-titles weren’t indicative enough, every song on the main album centers around either (both imminent and presently occurring) death, violence and zombies. This is mostly fine, since Mille’s vocals are nearly impossible to discern, but when Ventor sings with his far clearer voice, the violence begins to border on campy.
“Choir of the Damned,” the album’s iconic intro, still used to open Kreator shows today, establishes a sense of eerie peacefulness. The strings and harmonized acoustic guitars are beautiful, yet also very haunting. This sense of dread is brought to life with “Ripping Corpse,” opening with a riff that immediately sets a dark tone. Ventor’s drumming on this and many of the album’s other songs sounds simply massive and border on blast beats when it comes to speed, while Mille’s lyrics, centering around a murderous zombie, are barely decipherable and buried in echo, but help contribute to the album’s evil atmosphere. “Death Is Your Saviour” is marked with truly bludgeoning drum and guitar work and never lets up in its pure force. The title track, another ode to zombie violence, is an absolute Kreator classic. With its iconic tom-tom rolls peppered throughout by Ventor and an unforgettable main riff, the listener is pulverized until its bridge, after which the aural barrage resumes once more.
“Riot of Violence” is the odd man out on this LP, being the slowest song, yet somehow being the most traditionally thrash. Ventor’s uncharacteristically tight and restrained drumming pushes the song forward, and introduces a chorus tailor-made for crowd shout-alongs. Unlike the other songs, the lyrics of “Riot of Violence,” sung by Ventor, are actually pretty horrific in their imagery. Themes explored include humanity’s apathetic attitude towards those who suffer, beauty begin extinguished by conflict and greed driving people to violence. Even though the lyrics are all over the place in terms of its subject matter, they are the best on the album if only because the violence and horror described isn’t random and message-less.
“The Pestilence” finds the band in a progressive mood, with a groovy instrumental intro that opens up to more relentless drumming and riffing. The song has many sections tied together with short solos from Mille, and remains one of their best long offerings thanks to its frequent returns to jack-hammer speed. “Carrion” and “Command of the Blade,” while both fine songs in their own right, ride on the momentum established by the outstanding prior tracks. “Carrion” features many tempo shifts, a mid-paced bridge and three very jarring bluesy guitar breaks. Luckily the remaining solos return to Mille’s signature speed-based style. “Command of the Blade” is certainly an odd-track, mainly touting a melodic, yet still aggressive, chorus that sounds pretty out of place on the album.
On a random note, Rob Fioretti’s bass guitar is pretty much inaudible throughout the whole album, and when one does hear it occasionally, it simply mimics Mille’s rhythm parts. No surprises here!
“Under the Guillotine” ends the main album on a truly fantastic note. What begins as a standard barn-burner from the band transforms into a tight thrash guitar duel. Ventor again gives a more conventional thrash performance for this section, while Mille simulates a dual lead solo with some clever channel panning courtesy of producer Harris Johns. Even though Mille proved himself on the other tracks well enough, his performance on this song cemented him as the leader of the Teutonic Thrash movement. Having only one guitarist in a thrash band isn’t difficult in and of itself, but Mille wrote and recorded these songs as if there were two. This is evident in the way the rhythm guitar tracks work together throughout the album and the channel panning that is heard frequently as guitars pop up from the left or right only to be joined by the rest of the tracks. Simply put, Mille established his compositional talent on this album, and became an total guitar hero for legions of young metal fans across the world.
Nearly every version of this album comes with the “Flag of Hate” EP tacked on to the end. The EP’s title track is one of Kreator’s best songs ever, with Ventor attaining tempo perfection while still retaining his rain of drums, and Mille giving his very first truly powerful vocal performance. Today, the track, in a medley with “Tormentor” from the previous year’s “Endless Pain,” remains Kreator’s live showstopper. “Take Their Lives” and “Awakening of the Gods” return to the progressive stylings of “The Pestilence,” but carry a more mid-tempo thrash feel throughout. Even the main riff of “Take Their Lives” is reminiscent of the “E-chug” of many American thrash classics. Ventor gives a noteworthy performance as he shows that he can work a ride cymbal groove unlike a great many thrash metal drummers. “Awakening of the Gods,” a more successful track than its proggy companion, features shifts in speed at just the right times. Unlike many other progressive thrash metal songs, “Awakening of the Gods” doesn’t feature any long extended solos, but relies heavily on heavy riffing to carry the song. This strategy works, especially when considering an extended solo in Mille’s style would grow pretty boring after a while. The “Flag of Hate” EP flows well with the main album, primarily thanks to Harris Johns once again delivering nearly the same sounds as he did on “Pleasure to Kill.” The sound he achieved, while low-fi by most standards, served the songs extremely well, and helped create an atmosphere impossible to produce with any sort of superior technology.
This album is one of the most important in the evolution of heavy metal, and is one that is very dear to me. I owe who I am today, both in a musical sense and in a social and academic sense to this album. “Pleasure to Kill” was completely unlike anything before, barring the mainly hardcore punk-infused “Speak English Or Die” from New York’s Stormtroopers of Death. It’s impossible to overstate the influence this album and the band have had on heavy metal: past, present and future. “Pleasure to Kill” deserves every accolade it has received and will receive.
Rating: 10/10
Track Listing:
Choir Of The Damned
Rippin Corpse
Death Is Your Saviour
Pleasure To Kill
Riot Of Violence
The Pestilence
Carrion
Command Of The Blade
Under The Guillotine
Flag Of Hate
Take Their Lives
Awakening Of The Gods