This year, Copenhell had managed to snag a real heavyweight champion within the thrash metal genre – one quarter of the Teutonic Big Four – Kreator!
Yeah, I admit, I was quite thrilled by this, and was looking forward to one more of their usually very solid shows.

“The Kreator has returned to Denmark, but this is the first time at Copenhell! We’ve heard good things about this festival, but this is beyond our expectations!”
- Miland ‘Mille’ Petrozza (vocals/guitar)

Kreator had a perfect spot, 21:30 at the Helvíti Stage, and a good deal of time to play in before the next band. This opportunity wasn’t about to go to waste, that much was clear!
They had partially reinvented their stage setup since the last time we saw them, including huge video screens now, and a lot of other stuff that would become apparent as the show rolled on. But to take it from the top, we were treated to Choir Of The Damned as an intro as the band members took their places before blasting headlong into Enemy Of God; blasting in more than one way even, as several confetti filled cannons were fired in the beginning of the song. The style was set, and now it was full power for the rest of the evening!
Other fun things included a smoke rifle used during Warcurse, lots and lots of fire in From Flood Into Fire, and more confetti use in Hordes Of Chaos (A Necrologue For The Elite).
All this helped heighten the experience of the show, no doubt about that, but it couldn’t work on its own, not without a band that put in some effort. I mentioned above that Kreator has made themselves known, at least in our house, as a band that as of late has been very consistent in their solid delivery, and this night was no exception. If anything, they did even better than usual! Here, I’m thinking in particular of Christian ‘Speesy’ Giesler. Usually, he can come off as borderline shoegazer, with his constant headbanging and lack of eye contact – here he had an exceptionally good contact with the crowd, and that was certainly one of the things that helped raise this gig above even the rather high standards of Kreator.

“Copenhell, it’s time to raise the flag of hate!”
- Petrozza (vocals/guitar)

At first, there was a large, but rather open and spread out crowd waiting for Kreator, but as soon as the band began playing, more and more people came flooding in, and it didn’t take long for the concrete slab in front of the stage to fill up, and even the hill in the back was well populated.
The bigger the crowd grew, the more action was also to be seen. A wild moshpit, fitting the furious musical delivery, ripped the middle of the crowd apart, and those who didn’t partake in this, broke their neck with equally wild headbanging. Petrozza mentioned appreciation for the festival, and with good reason – this was Copenhell at its best! It wasn’t the only show that garnered this type of response, but it was without doubt in the top layer.
For my own part, I fully enjoyed every minute of it. So much so, that I even ended up putting down the word “awesome” twice independently in my notes! This was also beyond my expectations.

Setlist:

Choir Of The Damned
Enemy Of God
Terrible Certainty
Phobia
Awakening Of The Gods
Endless Pain
Warcurse
Mars Mantra
Phantom Antichrist
From Flood Into Fire
Extreme Aggression
Suicide Terrorist
Hordes Of Chaos (A Necrologue For The Elite)
Civilization Collapse
The Patriarch
Violent Revolution
Pleasure To Kill
Flag Of Hate / Tormentor