Review Summary: Evolution or involution? It's up to you...
Kreator’s path as a thrash band during the 90s was certainly similar to that of any other old-school metal outfit back then; after the inclusion of ex-Sodom guitarist Frank ''Blackfire'' Gosdzik, the iconic German group released
Coma of Souls in 1990, a highly technical thrash album and undoubtedly one of their best and most beloved studio works. The band’s smarter and more polished direction, whilst delivering such a high quality product, ultimately left fans cold, and it didn’t receive the same acclaim and appreciation as its predecessor,
Extreme Aggression. This eventually led to front-man and mastermind Mille Petrozza to change his ideals and Kreator’s musical direction on the next album, the polarizing
Renewal (an adequate title, no doubt).
But what exactly went wrong with this record? Why did it receive a big negative response and has a bad reputation nowadays? Did Mille give us an album full of corny, accessible ballads and grungey mid-tempos? Not exactly, however as soon as opener ''Winter Martyrium'' starts out, with Ventor’s drums dominating the speakers, a Petrozza’s harsh, shouty vocal approach instead of his customary shriek and a strange, more modern vibe, it’s easy to see why someone would commit the mistake of thinking that Mille fired all the band members prior to the recording; instead of carrying on the flag of hate as on their previous studio efforts,
Renewal shows a drastic orientation towards a more industrial-tinged sound along with some hardcore-ish charge, multi-part structures, abstract tempo changes and gray, dark atmospheres.
Although the album is a complete stylistic detour from the impressive thrash quality of
Coma of Souls,
Renewal brought some new elements and flavors to the band’s sound and still remains as an interesting and overall consistent record on the merits of what it actually aims to be. The album still retains the aggressive feel of previous efforts, mostly courtesy of the tight, down-tuned riff compositions and the lyrics, which deal with sociopolitical subjects in an obscure, negative way, giving an oppressive and desperate vibe to frantic, hardcore-ish metal attacks like ''Brainseed'' (
'Seeds of distorted thoughts/Planted into the brains of us all') or the slow, ominous mini-epic ''Karmic Wheel'' (a song about the suicide of American politician Robert Budd Dwyer). The mix gives a mechanical, machinal feeling to all the songs along with the occasional use of samples on songs such as ''Europe After the Rain'' or the noisy, crude one-minute-and-a-half interlude ''Realitatskontrolle,'' while Ventor’s drums, although not electronically programmed as is usual with some industrial albums, are louder and take more prominence on the sound compared to the band’s previous material.
Instrumentally
Renewal shows a decent amount of variety on its longest, most industrial-influenced compositions like ''Winter Martyrium'' or the unpredictable ''Reflection,'' focusing more on sonic textures, hypnotic grooves and slow, atypical (for Kreator) passages instead of pure riffing and breakneck tempos. Kreator mainstay Mille Petrozza was apparently influenced by marihuana and LSD at the time of making this album (the back cover contains the phrase
'LEGALIZE MARIHUANA'), and it’s noticeable in the sinister and confusing atmospheres on closing ''Depression Unrest''; from its cool start-stops to the dense, relentless guitar solo and the main vocal hook, with Mille bleeding on each note with force (
'DEPRESSION UNREST, AS I WATCH THE SKY'), it closes monumentally the things and remains as an intrincate, aggressive industrial composition. Although Mille’s shouting can feel a bit weird and confusing during the first listen (the usual criticism with this album), his furious, hardcore-ish approach certainly fits with the album's devastating, dark vibes.
Despite the notorious experimentation and modern sound, there’s actually some riff-led material to be found on Kreator’s sixth outing. The title track in particular is pretty much a classic of the band, with its demolishing, hammering guitars, a catchy groove and an unforgettable mid-paced structure. The creepy, fairly impressive ''Zero to None'' and ''Brainseed'' reveal themselves as thick, macabre thrashing tracks with the crunchiest riffs of the album, while the doom-laden elegy ''Karmic Wheel'' is an underrated atmospheric highlight thanks to Ventor’s slow, powerful pounding and even features an eerie, slow and mysterious instrumental break in the middle with occasional audio samples, something the band hadn’t tried before.
With
Renewal the band for the first time in their history received a big ''no'' as a response from the metal community. It was a hard blow for thrash fans at that time, however even as an anomaly or a black sheep in Kreator’s catalogue it has some merits; if it weren’t for this transitional, experimental phase, we wouldn’t be receiving positively their latest efforts, but rather considering them ''more of the same''. A change in sound is not necessarily an awful thing, as sometimes stagnate in creating the same album everyday can make a band’s sound less exciting over the years; in an era where every thrash legend suddenly changed its artistic direction, Kreator did it in a respectable and ingenious way. Rarity for some, trash for others, a little gem for a few. Get this if you’re a curious.
