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Review Summary: This is the beginning of Kreator’s slump of the 90s. Ahhhhh. The infamous 90s slump. Almost every big thrash metal band of the 80s had it. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and now Kreator. All of them fell prey to this. Renewal has the misfortune to be the first album in Kreator’s 90s slump until they got their act together in the early 21st century. Kreator on this album is:
Mille Petrozza- Guitars and Vocals
Frank “Blackfire” Gosdzik- Guitars
Rob Fioretti- Bass Guitars
Jürgen “Ventor” Reil –Drums
As soon as this album starts out, if you are a Kreator fan, you know something is wrong. It has a slow sort of drum beat, which is kind of cool, but the snares sound a little…off. “Winter Martyrium” later devolves into a poor industrial sounding song, with barely audible guitars and odd sounding snares. This whole epidemic continues throughout the album, if you can last that long without shutting it off. These poor sounding snares are exemplified most in the song “Karmic Wheel.” The snares sound awful, and it is very distracting to the overall song. In fact, “Karmic Wheel” is one of the better songs of the album when taking into account the other aspects of the song, the riff is pretty cool, Mille’s vocals are decent. Unfortunately, the odd snare sound detracts from the overall song.
However, the one overwhelmingly good thing I can say about this album is that the guitar riffs are still as good as ever, and for the most part, live up to Kreator’s lofty standards. The aforementioned “Karmic Wheel” has a nice riff, as does the song “Zero to None” and “Europe After the Rain.”
Except, for every reaction, there is equal and opposite reaction. That law holds true on this album. For all the good guitar riffs, they are killed by Mille’s poor vocals. He sounds much raspier on this album and not very good. “Europe After the Rain,” “Renewal,” and “Brainseed” are all fairly good songs that are killed by Mille’s vocals, and I wish he could have done some more Extreme Aggression and Coma of Souls style vocals, which are of very high quality and fit the music.
What some people complain about a lot on this album are the industrial aspects of it. For the most part, I don’t mind them. Actually, on the final song, “Depression Unrest,” it actually adds to the overall song. But I guess that may come with the association of these industrial elements to overall poor quality of this album.
Overall, this album is not very good. It is better than most of Kreator’s 90s experimental albums, but it is still not good. Also, the fact that it came immediately after the superb Coma of Souls also further adds to the disappointment. But there are a track or two that are decent and deserve to be in any Kreator fans library.
Pros:
Good Guitar riffs
Interesting industrial parts
Cons:
Poor Vocals
Odd Snares
No good bass parts
Recommended Tracks:
Europe After The Rain
Depression Unrest
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i havent heard any of their experimental shit, but from what everyone is saying, i dont even want to give it a try. coma of souls and pleasure to kill all fuckin day.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I'm not saying they didn't start the 90s well, I'm saying that their 90s stuff is not NEARLY the quality of their 80s stuff.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Agreed, but Divine Intervention, Undisputed Attitude, and Diablos In Musica are not nearly as good as Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Hell Awaits, and Show No Mercy. Same with Megadeth. Rust in Peace is amazing, but Risk, Youthanasia, and Cryptic Writings are not on the same level as Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? and Killing is My Business...And Business is Good!
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
Although i fully respect your opinion about not liking this, I totally disagree with what you say about this record.
As for the review, it is merely half decent, as it balances between redundancy (a whole paragraph just saying that the snare drums sound weird, all metal sounds weird that's why we like it) and non-cohesive/controversial track-by-track album description.
However i won't neg, because i don't like negging in general.
On the recommended tracks you didn't place "Renewal". Kreator play it live on every occasion and the crowd goes wild by its tremendous groove.
You should have listened to this more times before reviewing it.
Extreme Aggression was superb, Coma of Souls was too, but the latter, despite its high quality, was repeating the songwriting ethics of the former and fans then didn't appreciate it as much as they did with Extreme Aggression.
So the band had to evolve for the better or for the worse. Simple as that. This isn't pure 80's thrash? WHO CARES? And don't forget that Mille always had an open mind for new influences and progress in general, otherwise they would stagnate in issuing Pleasure to Kill (which is great) forever. I believe - that is I'm not dead positive - that Kreator's American tour in 1987 with Voivod (who issued the classic and also industrial-influenced Dimension Hatross back then) planted the seed of change in Mille's mind.
Renewal is great. Its only flaw is that it was issued in 1992 when metalheads' minds were not as open as they are (?) now.
PS: The artwork of Dave McKean in this record is simply beyond words, so superb..............
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Voivod, you are entitled to your opinion, and I respect that. However, I am slightly confused by what you mean by me doing a track by track review. I never said "this track was like this, etc." I simply point out an aspect of the album, and say a song or two that exemplify that point. If you could tell me how to fix that so it doesn't seem that way, I'd be happy so I could improve my overall review writing.
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the review is fine. its not a track by track.
users really need to learn to stop opinion from clouding their judgement
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
i never said that the review is a track-by-track in its classic form, but the references of all the songs when talking about the characteristics of the record, do imply a tbt way of describing things.
my objection about the review lies in the fact that the pros and cons - which i admit that they are different per listener - of the record are not presented uniformly within the body of the text. The second paragraph talks about the cons, the third talks about the pros, while the fourth and the fifth are a mix of both. That's what i meant when i mentioned that the review is non-cohesive.
This is just my opinion though.
users really need to learn to stop opinion from clouding their judgement
this is the second reason why i didn't neg, while there are not-too-few Sputnik users out there who would neg a review just because their point of view is different than that of the reviewer.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Unfortunately Voivod, I am inclined to believe Terrifyer, because I used the same format for my review of Katorz, and you pos'd the review. So, I am slightly confused by your opinion.
Also, I went back and listened to Renewal again after I posted the review, and bumped up my rating a little.
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lol
a track by track is:
1. Winter Martyrium: this is a good song there are guitars and drums, then a solo and stuff 4/5
2. etc etc
mentioning songs does not constitute a track by track review
| | | Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
@ Gigglesdemon
Your review for Katorz was well written that's why i pos'd it. This one has - my opinion - the aforementioned cohesiveness issue. Take it or leave it. I myself use a certain way when i write my reviews, but that doesn't mean that all of them are equally good (as i see them).
@ Terrifyer
i quote from my post
i never said that the review is a track-by-track in its classic form, but the references of all the songs when talking about the characteristics of the record, do imply a tbt way of describing things.
better now?
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edit: nevermind.
arguing with a brick wall itt
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Kreator
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Reaktor
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Is that what they were called before the accident?
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omg
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Sorry I didnt mean to bring up something so horrifying here
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its ok its just the memories theyre still vivid
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Probably the grossest story in metal...I gotta go shower and take the dry semen out of my ass I'll be back
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that wont take away the pain
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I dont want it to...I have to wait though, my mom is using the chisel first
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