Album Review: Kreator Phantom Antichrist

It's been many, many years since Kreator were cult heroes in the black metal underground. But thankfully, it's also been a long time since the band decided they didn't want to be restricted to thrash metal anymore and instead wanted to play commercially-inspired industrial rock. Kreator in the noughties falls somewhere between these two extremes, having found a comfortable groove where they're content to churn out album after album of catchy, well-constructed Teutonic thrash metal. It's a good place to be and Phantom Antichrist keeps alive a purple patch for the band that started way back in 2001 with the release of Violent Revolution.

Their latest album kicks off with the razor-sharp title track that shows off both the band's precision and the deft use of Gothenburg-styled melodies. The goodness keeps on coming with the mid-tempo stomp of Death To The World and the anthemic From Flood Into Fire that together form a devastating one-two punch. Deep in the album's nine sits Your Heaven My Hell, with its slow, brooding build and mid-song explosion, which cements main-man Mille Petrozza as a songwriter still at the top of his game.

It's not just the band's compositional prowess that stands out. The playing on Phantom Antichrist is flawlessly energetic with the dual leads of Petrozza and Sami Yli-Sirniö particularly satisfying. Phantom Antichrist isn't likely to win breathless new converts to Kreator's cause. But to be fair. that's not what the band are trying to do here. This is an album pitched squarely at the Kreator faithful, and every one of them is going to wear a huge smile after just a single listen.