HEAVY MUSIC HISTORY: Hordes Of Chaos – Kreator

This retrospective is dedicated to the incredibly insightful and meticulously researched article our author wrote about KREATOR’s Violent Revolution (2001) before realising it was the wrong album.

There’s an argument to be made that out of all the bands who benefited from the mid-2000s thrash resurgence, none did better than KREATOR. As the millennium dawned, Mille Petrozza and his veteran band mates were at a low point and seemed destined for the dustbin of history. But flash forward to now and they’re an institution. They’re a festival headlining band with a devoted global following and attract the sort of critical kudos that other thrashers can only dream of. In 1999, they were on the verge of being forgotten but nowadays, they get mentioned among the genre’s greats.

And when it comes down to it, they achieved this simply by being bloody good at writing thrash metal. After spending the nineties experimenting with their sonic palette to somewhat…mixed results, they returned to their roots with 2001’s Violent Revolution and began a slow, gradual return to the top of the pyramid. The nineties weren’t a total wash out (1997’s Outcast is an underrated gem), but stripping away the excess and playing no-nonsense thrash metal set them on an upward trajectory that hasn’t yet peaked. They’re currently on a six-album winning streak and there’s no indication that they’re finished.

Right smack in the middle of that run is Hordes Of Chaos. Released on SPV in 2009, it embraces the band’s no-nonsense ethos and takes it to a raw, venomous conclusion. With the exception of the vocals and guitar solos, the bulk of the material was recorded live on an analog tape recorder. Consequently, it has a ramshackle, almost punk vibe. Hordes Of Chaos comes across like little more than a demo because, well, that’s what it is, and it perfectly suits the atmosphere. They hadn’t produced an album like this since 1986 and it shows. Try playing this and Pleasure To Kill back to back; sure, Petrozza’s vocals have noticeably improved, but otherwise there’s not much difference.

This clearly struck a chord as Hordes Of Chaos was a big success. KREATOR could rely on their European fans to turn out, but this was their first album to chart in America. A co-headlining tour with fellow neck-wreckers EXODUS saw their stock rise further and roughly one year later, they inked a deal with powerhouse label Nuclear Blast.

It also helped that going back to basics contrasted with their previous record. 2005’s Enemy Of God was a thrash metal epic; an ultra-heavy, fifty-five minute masterpiece of paranoia and madness. It was a pivotal moment in the band’s history, arriving at a point when many young metal heads were still feeling let down by METALLICA’s St. Anger (2003) and looking for the real deal. It’s an excellent album, one of their bests, but it’s also got a big budget, blockbuster vibe. Enemy Of God is almost an hour long and has a crisp, pristine production, whereas Hordes Of Chaos is shorter and nastier.

This is emphasised as soon as the record starts. The opening title track has a brief melodic intro but quickly turns into a full-pelt monster. It also boasts a simple but effective chorus, Petrozza screams the song title repeatedly, followed by the words “everyone against everyone” over and over again. It’s straightforward, brutal and catchy and became an instant staple of their live shows. The accompanying music video which sees a loincloth wearing barbarian carving a bloody path to kingship left a mark too. This was thrash at its most stark, pulpy and violent.

From there, Hordes Of Chaos barely pauses for breath. Warcurse and Escalation fly past at breakneck speed, Destroy What Destroys You marries technical precision and hyper aggression, and Absolute Misanthropy can only be described as every KREATOR stereotype rolled into one. Enemy Of God was peppered with mini epics, but here, only To The Afterborn so much as hints at a wider sonic palette. If Enemy Of God is a lion in the prime of its life, stood atop pride rock with its mane billowing in the wind, Hordes Of Chaos is a mangy hyena tearing scraps off a giraffe carcass.

The reaction from fans and critics alike was incredibly positive and saw their stock rise. But curiously, the raw intensity that made Hordes Of Chaos a favourite seems to have been a one-off. The follow-up, 2012’s Phantom Antichrist, had a slightly more progressive edge while Gods Of Violence (2017) and Hate Über Alles (2022) continue Enemy’s epic vibe. All of these records are terrific and each has further cemented KREATOR’s post-millennium run as a second golden age, but they don’t have the rabid viciousness of Hordes Of Chaos. They’re arguably better now than they were in their eighties heyday, but Hordes Of Chaos stands out. It’s KREATOR at their most stripped-back, a wide-eyed and deranged album and even if it’s not their best, it is their heaviest. For a few years there, when Mille Petrozza would shout “I want you to kill each other” at their live shows, it didn’t sound like a mosh call. It felt like he meant it.

Hordes Of Chaos was originally released on January 13 2009 via SPV/Steamhammer.

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