Teutonic titans Kreator‘s 16th album, Krushers Of The World, is the follow-up to 2022’s Hate Uber Alles. Having been at this for over 40 years, it becomes increasingly more difficult to find how Mille Petrozza, Ventor and crew are able to get inspired for new music over all that time.
They have gone from the raw and lauded albums of the ‘80s and early ‘90s to their strange ‘90s detour to their punishing revival around the 2000s and in recent a combination of their classic sound with a more modern sound, that is coupled with great production. What version of the band are we getting here?
The 1-2 punch of “Seven Serpents” and “Satanic Anarchy” do plenty to draw the listener in with ample thrashing riffs, being unafraid to use melody to help to drive home the chaos. The title track is a bit of a slow burn, letting drummer Ventor do a lot of the talking with slowly driven drum fills and pounding bass drums, all while Petrozza riffs away at a guitar solo.
The velocity increases on “Barbarian” as Kreator plunge headfirst into the raucous ways for which they are famous, including as many tracks here do, chant-centric sections that belie the European origins of metal. From here you get a combination of the songs to this point and disappointingly a little too midpaced and lacking some serious bite.
Modern Kreator seem to lack the overall venom that their earliest incarnations were famous for, trading in the vile production and darkness of their music for clean production and a more straightforward thrashing attack, making them more or less just another thrash metal band.
There are surefire highlights on this album but short of Mille Petrozza’s timeless gravelly shouts this feels as though it could be any other thrash metal band. Krushers Of The World is a decent thrash metal album, one that is held back by sounding a little too much the same as other modern albums by thrash metal bands of yore.
(released January 16, 2026 on Nuclear Blast)
Heavy Music HQ Rating:
Watch Kreator – “Seven Serpents” Video
