Kreator - Phantom Antichrist review
| Band: | Kreator |
| Album: | Phantom Antichrist |
| Style: | Teutonic thrash metal |
| Release date: | June 2012 |
Disc I
01. Mars Mantra
02. Phantom Antichrist
03. Death To The World
04. From Flood Into Fire
05. Civilisation Collapse
06. United In Hate
07. The Few, The Proud, The Broken
08. Your Heaven, My Hell
09. Victory Will Come
10. Until Our Paths Cross Again
11. Iron Destiny [Japanese bonus]
Disc II [DVD] [Limited edition bonus]
+ Conquerers Of The Ice - The Making Of Phantom Antichrist
+ Harvesting The Grapes Of Horror
Live At Wacken 2011
01. Choir Of The Damned
02. Hordes Of Chaos
03. War Curse
04. Coma Of Souls / Endless Pain
05. Pleasure To Kill
06. Destroy What Destroys You
07. Phobia
08. Terrible Certainity / Reconquering The Throne
09. Flag Of Hate / Tormentor
+ Live At Wacken 2008
10. Violent Revolution
11. People Of The Lie
12. Europe After The Pain
A masterclass in mixing the aggression of thrash with the production quality of the 21st century.
There are many people that love Kreator's low quality, raw sounding early output for the feeling of pure aggression, but personally I love when well-crafted music and the feeling it means to generate blend together, and Phantom Antichrist does this brilliantly to become my favourite thrash metal album of all time.
The sound is clean and polished, but the music is heavy enough that, instead of sounding empty or hollow, it adds to the power of the riffs, which would fit right at home in their '80s output with one key caveat: these songs have more tempo changes, groove and overall complexity to make the album a thoroughly enjoyable listen for metalheads both within and outside of the thrash fans. The title track has enough individual great parts to be comparable to the riffs of "Holy Wars" and "Civilisation Collapse" isn't far behind, along with the latter containing an absolutely crushing final crescendo made possible by a brilliant mix, allowing you to hear every band member going flat out until the very end.
The only downside is that the final third or so of the album isn't quite as strong as the rest but on the whole, for someone who's not too emotionally attached to the '80s, this album shows exactly how thrash can be melodic and heavy at the same time, without the need for any songs made up of three or four minutes of one-dimensional chugging (plus an occasional chorus).
Overall Phantom Antichrist is a brilliant selection of songs well worth listening to whenever you have the crave for something fast and heavy.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 10 |
| Songwriting: | 9 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 10 |
Written by Danroush | 18.03.2019
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Rating:
9.3
9.3
|
Rating: 9.3 |
Prior to the release, frontman Mille Petrozza claimed that Phantom Antichrist would be the "most epic" Kreator album ever. He went further saying that Phantom Antichrist is better than anything released by the Big Four in recent years. These words seemed to be empty rhetoric at first, but after being taken on the "epic" journey through Phantom Antichrist, the impression is that Petrozza and Co. have succeeded in fulfilling their promises. Read more ›› |
Rating:
8.4
8.4
|
Rating: 8.4 |
Kreator! Aaaaaaahhhhh! That is all I need to state to introduce this review. 13th studio album from the reigning kings of Teutonic Thrash Metal and rightfully regarded as one of the most respected Metal bands of all time. Anybody wants to disagree with that? I thought not. It is refreshing to see a musical style best known for its impact on the 1990s still being alive and well in 2012. Read more ›› |
Comments
Hits total: 1284 | This month: 9