The second day of Metalfest was coming to an end, and what better way to celebrate this than with one of Germany’s finest?
Kreator was giving a sort of release-party for their newly released album Phantom Antichrist, and we were all invited…

What met our eyes first was a completely new stage setup to match the artwork of the new album. In the way it was built up it reminded me of the last one, with the long curtains stretching from the front to the back of the stage on either side, creating something similar to a theatre stage for the band to play in, but where the last one had had a steely grey factory looking finish to it, the new one was made to resemble the apocalyptic imagery of the Phantom Antichrist. The video screen in the back had also been replaced with a more traditional backdrop, and to really add to the final product, large-scale statue versions of the rotting horses stuck out of the banners on the side of the drum podium. A very cool image which was too quickly completely covered by the usual excess of stage smoke which the Kreator boys seems to be so fond of…

But what’s more important than the stage setup must be what is happening on that same stage, and what was happening was that Kreator was tearing through us like a reaper through weeds. To begin with, The Patriarch was rolling out of the speakers, and from there we all knew what was up next – Violent Revolution! I was surprised to hear this as an opener, both because it usually doesn’t show up until the encore, but also because I had half expected to hear something from the new album here.
In more ways than one, Kreator presented us with a surprising setlist, but it was a most potent one at that, so there was nothing to worry about. You see, after the epic start, Kreator just added more coals to their fire, and blasted out Hordes Of Chaos (A Necrologue For The Elite) which in turn was quickly replaced with Phobia when the time came. It wasn’t actually until after this that we got to visit the new album for the first time, in the company of the title track which went down like a charm in the German crowd...
I admit to being one who often asks for some of the 90ies stuff, from which we only ever hear Phobia for some reason, but in the same breath I wholeheartedly admit to the simple fact that when Kreator get their thrash right, it kicks ass!
In this manner, Kreator went on to play a setlist which interestingly enough included every single title track right from the debut Endless Pain up to and including Coma Of Souls (which only had its intro played), and after skipping along to the 2000’s they went right back to playing title-tracks from Violent Revolution up to and including the new Phantom Antichrist.

A lot of the people who had dwindled off during the Edguy show, had now come back to see Kreator from the very beginning of the show, and as soon as the music came on, and much differently from the previous band, people went amok with headbanging and crowd-surfing. This was the way people should react to a headliner, it was a full on thrash party from the get-go!
It wasn’t completely bereft of humour though, and after Phobia was played out, the audience went about fulfilling the wish from Tobias Sammet of Edguy, who had asked of the crowd during his own show to sing Happy Birthday for Miland ‘Mille’ Petrozza. This was now done in full effect, but sadly it was sung at a point where Mr. Petrozza had gone backstage to prepare for the next song...
When back on stage, Petrozza called for a circlepit to accompany the next song, but from where I was standing I couldn’t tell whether or not his request was rewarded – I would guess it did though, as I consider the amount of moshing and headbanging that went on constantly during the rest of the show.

There’s not really much more to say, except a thank you to Kreator for another explosion of a show. It isn’t the best Kreator show I’ve ever seen, but it is in the top five easily.
Also, a nice little detail with the red-glowing eyes on the horse-statues...

Setlist:

The Patriarch
Violent Revolution
Hordes Of Chaos (A Necrologue For The Elite)
Phobia
Phantom Antichrist
Extreme Aggression
People Of The Lie
From Flood Into Fire
Terrible Certainty
Enemy Of God
Voices Of The Dead
Coma Of Souls
Endless Pain
Pleasure To Kill
Terror Zone
Flag Of Hate / Tormentor