Review of the Album Violent Revolution by German Thrash Metal Band Kreator

German thrash metal band Kreator entered the year 2001 on a high note. Even when they compose music a little differently than their usual formula it still works out. They have that magic touch when it comes to thrash metal similar to bands such as Annihilator and Holy Moses. Part of the reason for this album review of the album called Violent Revolution is based on my focus for reviewing albums of bands that come from Sweden and Germany.

You could say that this writer has developed a sort of big interest or fascination for bands from these two countries because of the way that they dedicate their time and life to the best finished product especially when it comes to heavy metal music.

Reconquering the Throne is a song about how the minds of the weak and other people can be manipulated. That song leads into the title track that basically addresses what can happen as human values deteriorate. Once again, Kreator uses melody to finish this song off.

The band’s 2001 album features a new guitarist, Sami Yli-Sirnio who has been with the band ever since. He is also the guitarist for the band Waltari. He has spent part of his life living in Germany so from a personnel standpoint, it made sense for Kreator to hire him.

The Patriarch is another instrumental that these guys wrote but this time, they have heavy guitars combined with crowd noise. They might have recorded this song LIVE. By 2005, Kreator would display heavy thrash metal combined with beautiful melodies to create so far what is their best album. I consider their 2001 work to be a time that they speak out against the evils of society that need to be addressed. However, as history has shown, when the population in countries becomes angry enough, they will revolt and the resulting revolution can become very violent. By this time in their career, Kreator has seen the voice of Mille Petrozza be at the range that I am used to hearing. The song called Servant in Heaven-King of Hell starts with some bass guitar before turning into a mid-tempo thrash song. But then, the melody kicks in and there are shades of the melody that we would hear 4 years later. The song called Second Awakening is a song about a society waking up, being reborn and realizing that they have been oppressed for too long. It is only a matter of time that people in freer nations will rise up against their oppressors. Replicas of Life is a song that starts out with a more modernized version of thrash while also sounding like early 1980’s thrash. However, the song is mature without any raw, staccato sound. Even if it is melodic, it still is not as good as songs like Dying Race Apocalypse or When Death Takes Its Dominion.

It would be a disservice if we did not discuss the greatness of the band Kreator especially in the last four decades. How does Kreator rank in the history of heavy metal when compared to some of the other big thrash metal bands of the last 40 years? They are certainly better than the following bands: Exodus, White Zombie, Prong, Corrosion of Conformity, Fear Factory, Slayer, and especially Megadeth. This is because Kreator really has not had a bad album or any kind of down time where they really sucked. If they were a decent band in the 1980’s, then by the 1990’s Kreator gradually got stronger in the songwriting department and by 2005 they would write such excellent songs as Impossible Brutality, When Death Takes Its Dominion, and The Ancient Plague. I am just briefly mentioning a few of the many great songs in that album but it shows that Kreator is one of the best German thrash metal bands of all time and one of the best thrash metal bands that has ever existed.

Is the album boring? As an avid fan of heavy metal since 1993, I can say that this album is most definitely not boring if you are interested in heavy thrash metal that is well composed. The album Violent Revolution is a return to the band’s heavy melodic thrash style that would be further enhanced by the album Enemy of God in 2005. As of this point, I have not really heard much from these German guys since 2005 but I have heard enough of their albums to say that they are one of Germany’s elite thrash metal bands. But as usual, be prepared to hear VERY heavy thrash metal that might make your eardrums pop! There are no bad songs on this album but it is a notch below 2005's album Enemy of God.

Note: it is July 2020 and I have heard pretty much every Kreator studio album since the 1980s and they have really gotten better since that time. There’s no need for these guys to reconquer the thrash metal scene because they have enhanced that genre! I used that phrase as reference to the first song Reconquering the Throne but Kreator is definitely among one of the top 5 thrash metal bands in Germany.