Reviews list for Kreator - Pleasure to Kill (1986)

Pleasure to Kill is known as what made Kreator one of the most popular legends of thrash. There's lots of deathly aggression that can hail this album a kick-A classic to the heavier metalheads. However, a few riffs here are a bit repetitive and don't stand out as memorable for me.

But how is this album besides the riffing issue? Very good! Drummer Ventor and Guitarist Mille have an awesome motive of each song using vocals from one of them. Ventor has a shouting style, while Mille is a thrash growler. Ventor performs some d*mn kick-A drumming with a bit of hammering technicality. Mille performs an OK blend of smooth and crunchy in his guitar, though his guitar work could've used some improvement. Rob Fioretti performs audible bass that helps the brutal rhythms stay steady.

With melodic guitar, "Choir of the Damned" is a friendly intro, the calm before the storm... Hooking you up right away in the thrash action is the great "Ripping Corpse", with a chorus of total bloodshed. "Death is Your Saviour" doesn't lighten up a bit, staying heavy and deathly all the way.

The title track is a brutal headbanging thrash classic, though it has neat melody in the chorus. "Riot of Violence" is a more mid-paced and crushing track, with catchy riffs that are quite killer. Same thing in the 7-minute epic "The Pestilence", though with different tempo changes, switching from slow and soft to fast and brutal. This makes me think of what tech-death band Pestilence were doing for their thrashy debut.

The searing speed continues in "Carrion". Then "Command of the Blade" is another favorite of mine from this album, sounding quite dynamic especially in the riff-solo bridge that would certainly remind thrash fans of Slayer. "Under the Guillotine" is quite notable, closing the album like the life of the executed by the device the song references. The skull rolls as a chorus that's quite good yet predictable rolls on with Mille's growls, making the song sound close to proto-death metal. It's quite a brutal way to end the album, but it could've been less predictable in my opinion.

All in all, Pleasure to Kill offers the kind of headbanging metalheads really need for some f***ing extreme thrash as explosive as the creation of the universe. Still a few of the riffing and chorus should've been less repetitive, and they make the album just a tad overrated. Despite that, the wicked heaviness is something that can't be lost....

Favorites: "Ripping Corpse", "Pleasure to Kill", "The Pestilence", "Command of the Blade"

A few years ago, I went on a Kreator marathon, listening to several of their albums and saving their apparent crowning jewel for last, that being their sophomore, Pleasure to Kill.  Having been extremely impressed with several other hit albums, a part of me believed I was in for the ride of my life with this one.  And it was a great ride, definitely, and the worst of the bunch.  So what makes me, a big thrash fan, possibly say that about such a beloved album that helped influence death metal?  Simple, the same thing that has killed the five-star for many other albums across many other genres: favoring the genre over the art.  In thrash's case, it's relying on heaviness to do the bulk of the work.  And this is one of the heaviest thrash albums you're ever going to find.

This is the second time I've heard the album.  Now lyrically, the album is beautifully disgusting and disgustingly beautiful.  There's an amazing sense of imagery and prose bleeding through some of these songs.  Too bad I can't make out most of what this guy is SAYING, THOUGH.  As well, the heaviness can make the album sound messier than the riffage deserves to sound, and it largely does the same thing throughout most of it.  It stops being a hot mess of production overcompensation on track 5, Riot of Violence, but it's not that long into the song before it decides, "let's include a little of it anyway just to keep saying 'HEY WE'RE HEAVY'" like they aren't already saying it.  Any real sense of art beyond the intro comes in a few tracks in at the beginning of The Pestilence, and the album's already halfway done by then.  And as I predicted, this artistic intro lasts 30 seconds of the seven minutes.  With this going on for seven minutes, I almost feel offended that the musical community considers this one of the pinnacles of thrash creativity.

I might get some slack for this, but heaviness aside, this album boasts none of the creativity I look for in this genre.  I can give it extra points for heaviness and proper production, yes, but I'm struggling not to rate it even more lowly just out of general spite for the idea that this is considered as creative as it is influential.  Many players in thrash and the death genre it influenced would quickly go on to do better things if they hadn't done so before.  This is an album that hides behind speed, production and heaviness to try to make up for sameyness and messiness and somehow got away with it.  And here I was thinking I was saving something special for the last review on my Metal Academy challenge.  I honestly believe this is one of the most overrated albums I've ever heard, and its convinced me to go over those other Kreator albums in the upcoming weeks.

68

Make no mistake, Kreator's second album Pleasure to Kill, has only one purpose - to Thrash you to within an inch of your life and to this end it's mission is immensely successful. PtK is a vicious and raw assault on the listener with an aggressiveness few thrashers have ever equalled, much like the previous year's Seven Churches, Possessed's proto-death album. In addition to Possessed's classic, the influence of tracks like Death Is Your Saviour and Pleasure to Kill can be heard throughout the early albums of Death, Morbid Angel and the rest of the first wave death outfits.
While I find it hard to look beyond Reign in Blood as the pinnacle of Thrash intensity, this is one of those very few that comes really close (Dark Angel's Darkness Descends being the other) with several songs that certainly wouldn't feel out of place on Slayer's masterpiece. The riffs are neck-breakingly savage, the drumming brutal and the solos are crazed, while Mille and Ventor's shared vocals are both sublimely suited to this more aggressive style of Thrash.
I have seen any number of reviews complaining about the lack of variety on offer, but that isn't really the issue here. As I said at the start of the review, this album's sole intention is to facilitate your attempt to try to break your neck in a headbanging frenzy and if you want a more nuanced and varied album then this was probably never meant for you anyway. A genuine Thrash classic and a headbanging masterclass.