Gods of Violence
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| Studio album by Kreator | ||||
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Publication |
January 27, 2017 |
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| Label (s) | Nuclear Blast | |||
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
51 min 43 s |
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Jens Bogren |
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Studio (s) |
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Gods of Violence is the 14th studio album by the German thrash metal - band Kreator . It was released on January 27, 2017 by Nuclear Blast and reached number one on the German album charts.
Emergence
Songwriting
The band started working on a new studio album back in 2013. The first song written for the new album was Gods of Violence . In the following months the band wrote more songs between their tours, such as B. World War Now . During the touring, the band did not write new material because, according to singer Mille Petrozza , the musicians had no time for it. The musicians also took their time with the new album because, on the one hand, they felt the pressure brought about by the expectations of the fans. On the other hand, Petrozza wanted to live up to its own standards and release “not a halfway good album”. Nevertheless, he announced in November 2013 that the new album could not be released until the end of 2015 at the earliest.
In the meantime, Petrozza recorded several demos , some of which only consisted of a few riffs . On these demos he worked with producer Markus Ganter (including Casper ), but according to Petrozza, the collaboration did not work properly. Sometimes Petrozza also recorded different versions of individual songs. For example, there were five different versions of the theme song Gods of Violence . A sequence intended as an intro by guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö for the song World War Now became a second refrain while the song was being written . Yli-Sirniö is co-songwriter on three tracks, the rest of the music and all lyrics are by Mille Petrozza.
Some of Petrozza's musical ideas were further developed by Yli-Sirnjö. Some tunes were by him with the help of tritone - intervals "trimmed to evil", according Petrozza when the tunes before "cheerfully sounded". In addition, more emphasis was placed on harmonies in the music . The band wrote a total of 14 songs and did not set a deadline . Originally the recordings were supposed to start in January 2016, but the musicians were not yet satisfied with the existing songs. From February 2016 the band rehearsed the finished material before recording started in the summer.
Recordings
Was added Gods of Violence as the previous album Phantom Antichrist in the Fascination Street Studios in Sweden Örebro . The album was produced and mixed by Jens Bogren, while Tony Lindgren did the mastering . The fact that the band has now worked with Borgren for the second time, according to the musicians, created a greater degree of trust, which meant that you could criticize yourself harder and get more out of the production process. For example, the song Lion With Eagle Wings was eight minutes long in its original form and was shortened to about five and a half minutes on Bogren's advice. All songs were recorded in one piece and the best takes were used for the album. Of the 14 songs completed for the album, twelve were recorded and eventually ten were used for the album. Then there was the intro apocalypticon . When recording the guitars , the band tested new technologies such as tube amplifiers and analog foot pedals. According to Petrozza, the band approached the recording as they did in the 1970s, but with contemporary technology.
Among the musical innovations of the album include orchestra - samples that were used in five of the eleven songs. On the recommendation of Jens Bogren, Kreator worked with the Italian band Fleshgod Apocalypse . In a conversation with Bogren, Petrozza had a sound in mind that should sound like a mixture of Ennio Morricone and Laibach . Bogren then got in touch with the band. In addition, harps , a zither and a bagpipe played by Boris “Yellow” Pfeiffer ( In Extremo ) can be heard. Producer Bogren had the idea again, who said that the song Hail to the Hordes had a Scottish touch. At the suggestion of Bogren, the song ends with the sounds of a bagpipe. The harp for the title song was played by Thekla-Li Wadensted, who was only twelve years old. In the song Fallen Brother , singer Mille Petrozza uses words in German, as he did on Phantom Antichrist . The guest musician on this song is the Swiss singer Dagobert , who recites a poem that he wrote exclusively for the album.
publication
The album cover was designed by the Essen artist Jan Meininghaus . In North America , the album appears with a different cover motif, created by the Brazilian Marcelo Vasco, who previously created the cover for the Slayer album Repentless , among other things . Kreator worked with photographer Robert Eikelpoth for the photos in the booklet. Music videos were shot for the theme song, Satan Is Real, and Totalitarian Terror . The three videos were produced by the Polish company Grupa13 . According to Mille Petrozza, the three tracks would be the three pillars of the album. In November 2017, Black Friday was followed by a picture disc single limited to 1,000 copies, including a music video for the song Hail to the Hordes , for which a concert recording in Essen's Grugahalle from March 2017 was used. Directed by Matthias Kollek.
In addition to the standard CD, the album is also available as a digibook. This contains a recording of Kreator's performance at Wacken Open Air in 2014, optionally on DVD or Blu-ray . The album was also released as a double LP in different colors. A mailorder edition limited to 1,250 copies is also available via the Nuclear Blast online shop . This version contains the album in a digibook as well as a double LP in red vinyl, the band's appearance at the Wacken Open Air 2014 on CD, DVD and BluRay, demo versions of the album on CD and a new edition of the one released under the name Tormentor in 1984 Demos End of the World on music cassette .
The US magazine Decibel published a Flexidisc with the song Earth Under the Sword in December 2016 , which is not on the album. Also at the end of 2016, Legacy magazine published the mini-CD Violence Unleashed , which, in addition to the title track from Gods of Violence and live versions of Phobia and Violent Revolution with The Number of the Beast , Wolfchild and Iron Destiny, also contained three songs from the Phantom Antichrist - Phase contains, which were only available as B-sides to the single releases or as a Japan bonus track. The German magazine Metal Hammer added the exclusive live album Live Antichrist to the February 2017 issue . Recordings of concerts from 2012 to 2016 were used. The CD contains the tracks Enemy of God , Phobia , Pleasure to Kill , Mars Mantra , Phantom Antichrist , From Flood into Fire , Suicide Terrorist , Black Sunrise , Renewal and Civilization Collapse . The German magazine Rock Hard added a split - 7 "single with the band Overkill to their March 2017 issue . Kreator contributed the song Warrior Heart , which, according to Mille Petrozza, quickly became apparent that it would not fit on the album. Overkill recorded a cover version of the song Man in Black by Johnny Cash for the single .
background
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Originally, Petrozza wanted to make Gods of Violence a concept album . The basic theme should be Greek mythology , which should be brought into connection with the present and the terrorist attacks. According to Petrozza, in Greek mythology there is a god for every human trait. He wanted to continue this concept, but had to break it off after three songs because he felt creatively restricted. According to Mille Petrozza, the core message of the album is that people shouldn't forget to live their lives and have a good life while doing it, no matter if something terrible happens again. Petrozza was influenced by positive thinking , since you should always see something good in everything.
The song World War Now was written immediately after the terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015 in Paris . The attacks included an attack on the Bataclan club , in which Kreator had already played and, according to his own statement, will continue to play in the future. The main message of the song is that terrorism must not win and that a life in fear is out of the question. Singer Mille Petrozza described the song as an inventory of the present.
“The world war described in World War Now is a psychological world war. It is about permanent terror, constant threat of terror. The fact that everyone lives with a certain amount of fear all the time. We live permanently under a certain kind of control. Fear is used to steer us in one direction. Something like Donald Trump happens as a result . "
The song Satan Is Real is about icons and the submissiveness that would always play a role in religions . Petrozza takes the view that, despite scientific enlightenment and progressive thinking, religions are still more relevant today than they should be. He added that in the song title he could have used Jesus Christ or Buddha instead of Satan . Petrozza does not reject religions per se and finds it positive that religions also provide orientation. However, religions can also be an instrument of submission. Petrozza also believes that the person Satan does not exist.
"The result is that we are all scared of each other and a lot of people think they have to go to extremes now: vote for extreme parties and join extreme groups."
Petrozza took inspiration for this song from the film The Witch and the television series Black Mirror . The promotional photos for the album, on which Petrozza wears the wings of a demon , for example , also partly refer to this song. According to Petrozza, the images are meant to represent a Western decadence on the verge of collapse.
Totalitarian Terror was inspired by a documentary about the political theorist and publicist Hannah Arendt , who emigrated to the United States in 1933 . Governments try to turn people against each other and make them hate each other. Hail to the Hordes deals with the feeling of togetherness and the feeling of togetherness in the metal scene. As a metal fan, you can quickly find contact abroad, even if you have nothing else in common. The song Lion with Eagle Wings is about the fact that you should see certain things in your life from a different perspective. The lion with eagle wings that gives the title is the lion of St. Mark . Petrozza compared the concept with the song Above the clouds of Reinhard Mey .
According to Petrozza, Fallen Brother should be a funeral song without being sad. However, the “fallen brother” does not mean a specific person, even if Petrozza actually has a deceased brother. Side by Side dealt with homophobia in its original form . Petrozza later revised the text, which now deals with the refugee crisis in Europe from 2015 . Death Becomes My Light is about reincarnation .
reception
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Reviews
The German magazine Metal Hammer named Gods of Violence "Album of the Month". According to Katrin Riedl, "every scream penetrates to the core, every detail is exactly where it fits, while the riffs , these crazy melodic twists and turns the listener finally go mad". Gods of Violence is “a 52-minute challenge to all oppressors of freedom”, for which Riedl awarded seven out of seven points. The German magazine Rock Hard also chose Gods of Violence as “Album of the Month”. For Holger Stratmann, Gods of Violence is an “almost perfect creator album”, which for the band is “the definitive ticket to the global metal Olympus ” and the “first must-have album of the year”. Stratmann awarded nine out of ten points. Dominik Rothe from the online magazine Metal.de described Gods of Violence as a "Thrash jewel that convinces in terms of both brutality and melody". He also praised the guitar solos, which "have never had such a class" in the band's history, for which Rothe awarded nine out of ten points. Yan bird-reviewed album for laut.de . On the one hand, he found, you find “rock-hard” Thrash similar to your own early works, on the other hand you find NWoBHM- typical epics in the style of Iron Maiden . The lyrics have a “mythological touch” and the refrains are “hymnic”, which makes them come close to Power Metal , as played by Blind Guardian . For Vogel, Kreator - long traded as the leading German thrash metal band - has advanced to the top international class.
The album was also rated positively outside of the music press. In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Jörg Scheller described Gods of Violence as “traditional eighties Thrash Metal at a high technical production level, breathed through with a romantic-expressionist pathos”. The album contains "eleven songs racing by at TGV- tempo and correspondingly thrilling, pleasantly transparent mixed songs with smooth-edged distortion and the inevitable sound of the machine-age drums". Mille Petrozza presented “the sublime of horror as a crystallized aesthetic” and appealed “quite statesmanlike” to “solidarity, common spirit, reason”.
Chart placements
With Gods of Violence , Kreator reached number one in the German album charts for the first time in their band's history . The album was also placed in the top ten in Austria with number four and in Finland with number seven. In Switzerland , Gods of Violence came in at number 13. For the first time in the band's career, Kreator made it into the British album charts, where Gods of Violence reached number 72. In the US album charts , Gods of Violence was number 118.
Awards
The editors of the German magazine Metal Hammer selected Gods of Violence as Album of the Year 2017. At the Metal Hammer Awards 2017, Gods of Violence was nominated in the category Best Album and the theme song was nominated in the category Metal Anthem . The prizes, however, went to the bands Heaven Shall Burn for the album Wanderer and to Ghost for the song Square Hammer . The German online magazine laut.de led Gods of Violence in second place in their list of the best metal albums of the year 2017th
The readers of the German magazine Metal Hammer voted the music video for the title song the second best and the music video for Satan Is Real as the tenth best video clip of 2016.
Re-use
The soccer club Rot-Weiss Essen uses the instrumental apocalypticon as a new intro before the home games. Apocalypticon is played immediately before the hit Adiole , to which the teams enter the field.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Katrin Riedl: Don't worry . In: Metal Hammer , December 2016, page 126
- ↑ a b c d e Katrin Riedl: Anti-fear album . In: Metal Hammer, February 2017, pp. 14-19
- ↑ KREATOR's MILLE PETROZZA: No New Studio Album Until 2015 At The Earliest. Blabbermouth.net , accessed November 17, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Ronny Bittner & Holger Stratmann: Above the clouds . In: Rock Hard , February 2017, pp. 18-25
- ↑ a b c d Ronny Bittner: Big words, huge sounds . In: Rock Hard, January 2017, page 18
- ↑ a b Dominik Rothe: As real as Spiderman and Mickey Mouse. Metal.de, accessed on January 1, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c d e Daria Hoffmann: KREATOR - Miland "Mille" Petrozza. Stormbringer.at, accessed on December 6, 2016 .
- ↑ KREATOR Releases Music Video For 'Hail To The Hordes'. Blabbermouth.net, accessed November 23, 2017 .
- ↑ Listen To New KREATOR Non-Album Track 'Earth Under The Sword'. Blabbermouth.net, accessed December 16, 2016 .
- ↑ Holger Stratmann: The fighter . In: Rock Hard, March 2017, page 18
- ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US
- ↑ Katrin Riedl: Kreator - Gods of Violence. Rock Hard, accessed January 11, 2017 .
- ↑ Holger Stratmann: Kreator - Gods of Violence . In: Rock Hard , March 2017, page 89.
- ^ Dominik Rothe: Kreator - Gods of Violence. Metal.de, accessed on January 13, 2017 .
- ↑ Yan Vogel: Kreator. Gods of Violence. Laut.de criticism. Thrash soup with lard: give the orc tinder! In: laut.de. Retrieved September 9, 2017 .
- ↑ Jörg Scheller: Anyone who hears something like this is prepared for anything. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , accessed on January 29, 2017 .
- ↑ Kreator in the Finnish charts. Hung Medien, accessed February 10, 2017 .
- ↑ Your Metal Hammer editors: United Metal Powers . In: Metal Hammer, January 2018, page 26
- ↑ METAL HAMMER AWARDS 2017: These are the nominees! Metal Hammer. Retrieved August 13, 2017 .
- Jump up ↑ The Metal Albums of the Year. laut.de , accessed on November 30, 2017 .
- ↑ Your Metal Hammer editors: Maximum Metallica . In: Metal Hammer, April 2017, pages 24–28
- ↑ Alexandra Michels: Kreator: 'Apocalypticon' is the new intro for Rot-Weiss-Essen home games. Rock Hard, accessed December 10, 2016 .