KREATOR - Phantom Antichrist

Three years ago, when Mille brought the Hordes of Chaos (2009) upon the world, I was thinking that they’d probably run out of juice for good, because it would have been almost impossible to come up with something as good for the fourth time in a row. And yet, despite all expectations, Kreator gives us an album that, in my opinion, is by far the best in their entire discography. One of the secrets to this success is the band line-up, intact since 2001, having become truly glued together.

Christian 'Speesy' Giesler does not stand out with surprising bass parts, but he does his job without mistake. Jürgen 'Ventor' Reil is a drummer that has grown with each album and has reached new heights on Phantom Antichrist. It may be that these words are spurred by the fact that the last Kreator show in these parts (at B’estfest - Tunari) was the only one of the four I have seen that was blessed with flawless sound, making Ventor’s drums absolutely devastating. Mille Petrozza, while not an extraordinary vocalist, releases an amazing energy with how he puts his notes together and unleashes adrenaline. Sami Yli-Sirniö crafts quite fabulous guitar solos and perfectly complements Mille, especially when they unite their forces in amazing twin solos. In addition to these we have all sorts of riffs, on the aggressive or melodic side, but also acoustic guitar, giving the overall feeling of a very complex album. The two guitarists do everything they can think of, and this is probably the best part of this record.

The songs included on Phantom Antichrist are very catchy, with easily remembered choruses, especially due to Mille enthusiastic performance. While on previous albums I could find songs that I could qualify as rather unremarkable, this time around we have nine extremely solid songs, nine songs that can become true hits for the heavy metal universe. I find it hard to nominate a favourite, because at first I liked Your Heaven, My Hell most, and then it was Civilisation Collapse (with a truly outstanding solo at the end), while now I feel very drawn to The Few, The Proud, The Broken. 

What I don’t get about Kreator is how, while their last four albums (plus Outcast - 1997) are utter masterpieces, their live shows seem to include many songs for the 80s, which unfortunately are pretty meh to me. Don’t get me wrong, I have no trouble accepting two or three songs that are representative for the band during that time. But when in 2012 half of your set is based on those years at the expense of the present (which, I repeat, is extremely bountiful), I tend to believe that Kreator are not very good at selling their goods.

Fantotzii Nota: 10