For more than 40 years, Kreator have not only been the German spearhead of fast thrash metal, but also international stars of the scene. Together with Lamb Of God and Municipal Waste they are currently touring through the larger halls of Europe and were guests at Haus Auensee on Friday. Something contemporary and socially relevant always comes into play behind their magnificent brute and somber demeanor.
The classic set and costume theater may have had its day on urban stages – in metal it’s still en vogue. At Kreator, it is currently staked and hanged corpse dolls that adorn the stage – and walking demons with glowing red spears. For this purpose, not only fire, steam fountains or confetti are taken from the pool of concert effects, but everything is blown together into the audience. This is also dressed in the spirit of metal folklore and loves to play the “hordes of chaos” on Friday evening to a full house in Auensee, as the internationally successful band legend from the Ruhr area calls its fans.
Of course, one loves to devote oneself to this beautifully eerie theater without automatically dripping with blood and paying homage to the devil in everyday life. In the concert, however, thousands of people chant “Satan Is Real!”, they wave the “Flag Of Hate” and have the “Pleasure To Kill”. And even if the demon and devil are still very vivid, Kreator proves once again that they can keep up with the times, even after more than 40 years on stage. Her themes and texts deal more and more with the real current horrors, denounce hate, racism and environmental destruction and take a critical look at religion.
The thrash quartet around Mastermind proves that all this doesn’t spoil a loud party A thousand Petrozzasimpressive on their current European tour “State Of Unrest”. As restless partners, they have top-class reinforcements from overseas with Lamb Of God and Municipal Waste, and at least in Leipzig the euphoric party celebrates them from the start much more than just waiting for the supports. The crossover hardcore thrashers Municipal Waste, founded in 2000, are neatly ordered in descending order of decades. It doesn’t take three fast songs before the circle pit rotates steadily and the pit security can start their work and catch crowd surfers. There is enough time to sweat off between the bands, as the stage is turned inside out once each time.
In the case of Lamb Of God, the almost colorful tribal and bird skeleton design comes into play, otherwise the groove and metalcore band, which has been active since 1991 and is highly influential in the USA and Canada, is an eye-catcher itself. Once dark, once white-grey metal mane on guitar and bass frame singer Randy Blythe, who whips his imposingly long rastas to the edgy accented songs more than bangs.
The big Kreator lettering on the stage curtain optically pulls you back to the 1980s for the grande finale. Behind them, drums, larger than some band rehearsal rooms, are pushed in, “corpses” are hung up, confetti cannons and pyrotechnics are activated. As the curtain falls, the title track of the current Kreator album “Hate Über Alles” kicks off and the audience works directly and hard on their metal catharsis, which they will gradually achieve over the next hour and a half with 14 songs from 11 albums. A part, however, can’t stop being filmed on a cell phone and thus spreads a little annoying pop star vibe into the heaviness.
There is pop of the highest quality when Sofia Portanet, featured on the album version, is actually live on stage for the duet “Midnight Sun”, a newcomer who has been increasingly celebrated since 2018 and according to the BBC “Germany’s next international Popstar”. Before that, however, there is still the first Wall Of Death, led by Petrozza. “You know the game,” he says, yes, of course this is always a bit of joint performance theater, but it’s always great fun for everyone involved. And it’s not only international because of the confusion of languages in the parquet, but also in the message: The world is divided, but we are united, Kreator swears to the metal community. And despite all the dark, devilish theatrics in the joint game, this is meant in a very real and cosmopolitan, colorful way.