Review Summary: Kreator still have some gas left in the tank.
When a metal band hits album sixteen, expectations usually get realistic. Most bands at this point settle into their comfort zone. They know their lane, they know their fans, and they’re not suddenly adding bongos or hiring a children’s choir. (Well… some metal bands would do that. But not Kreator.) Kreator, to their credit, have always been about consistency. They’ve survived trends, waves, resurgences, collapses, and a few questionable production choices back in the day. And now, decades later, they’re still delivering riff-heavy, high-energy, high-tempo thrash metal that aims to hit the same adrenal glands it hit in the ’80s. So going into Krushers of the World you expect: thrash, thrash, more thrash. And yes — Kreator stay firmly in their lane. But despite being deep into their career, this album has way more energy and fire than I expected. There’s a real push to make things sound big, epic, and frankly more accessible than they’ve been in a while. Whether that’s a good or bad thing… depends on your taste.
At its core, Krushers of the World is on-brand, straightforward thrash. The songwriting rarely surprises — which is normal for Kreator at this stage — but the execution has a surprising amount of power. There are tons of solos, many of them flashy. The production leans cleaner and more anthemic, less dirty and street-level than classic thrash. Honestly, this might be one of their most accessible albums in years, with big melodic choruses popping up across the tracklist. But that accessibility comes with a LOT of cheese — especially on the back half.
The opener
'Seven Serpents' features absolutely gnarly vocals — Mille genuinely sounds like he’s choking out a demon. I also dig gang vocals on the chorus and the power-metal-ish soaring guitars add some flare.
'Satanic Anarchy' makes for a solid one-two punch to open, it goes reasonably hard, brings dueling solos, and drops a surprisingly big clean chorus. But then you hit the title track, and you get this mid-tempo, almost arena-rock feel that is honestly a dud. It’s like they wanted another big festival anthem, but the result is pretty mid and barely thrash.
'Trananpalast' is another better track, largely thanks to the guest vocals from Britta Görtz (of Hiraes). She injects much-needed variety, and the track delivers high energy, great riffing, and one of the catchier choruses on the record.
'Barbarian' feels like an appropriate mid-album climax.
The back half has slightly more diversity in arrangements: different grooves, tempo shifts, and some expanded guitar ideas —
'Combatants' brings massive grooves and a great rhythm section that stands out against the full frontal assaults of the rest of the album.
'Deathscream' brings a galloping feel and more dual solos— very textbook, fun, on-brand. But this track along with
'Psychic Imperator', and
'Loyal To The Grave' in particular all crank up the cheddar level. The closer tries way too hard to be 'epic' but ends up being another mid Arena Rock track. There are also these choir moments here and there to try heighten the 'epicness' but often just make things cornier.
Mille deserves some credit on this one: even if his vocals lack variety, he’s absolutely going for it on tracks like the opener,
'Blood Of My Blood' and
'Deathscream'. Dude sounds like he's choking on his own blood at times.
Krushers of the World is a solid, energetic, often cheesy, sometimes fun Kreator record. It stays very safe, very traditional, and extremely on-brand. If you want gritty, harsh, street-level thrash like the old days, you’ll probably be disappointed. But if you’re into anthemic, melodic, festival-ready thrash with big clean choruses, this album might hit the spot.
