Chad Bowar of About Heavy Metal recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Mille Petrozza of veteran German thrashers Kreator. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.
About Heavy Metal: What can Kreator fans expect from "Hordes Of Chaos"?
Mille Petrozza: They can expect a very heavy record with sheer KREATOR brutality, nothing less. It's a very heavy album with a lot of fast songs and brutal stuff. It picked up where "Enemy Of God" left off. It's a progression, but we tried not to repeat ourselves. It's the next logical step.
I understand you changed your recording process a bit for this album.
Yes. The basic tracks were all recorded in a live situation. We had the whole band in one room recording drums, both guitars and bass at the same time. We didn't do overdubs to fix things afterwards. We left it like it was and tried to play as close to perfect as possible with the energy of a live show. For us this time it was more about the vibe and the emotion than perfection. It gives the listener a clue to what the band sounds like live, rather than a perfect polished studio production.
So many productions are cut and paste and very sterile sounding. It's nice to hear someone getting back to the old school way of doing things.
That's what we had in mind, and I think we achieved that with "Hordes Of Chaos".
How did you decide on Moses Schneider to produce the album?
He has produced a lot of pretty cool German bands that in America nobody probably knows. His sound is very unique. When we first heard Moses wanted to record the album live, we were skeptical and didn't know what to expect. He told us we were a great band and just to be self-confident and try it. If it doesn't work we'll go back to the way that you're used to. We felt comfortable after the first couple of rehearsals with him.
It's been a couple of years since you've played in the United States and you're coming back in April. Are you looking forward to that?
We're really looking forward to it. It's been too long. We're really excited. We're playing all over the place. It's going to be a great tour. We'll be out with our friends from Exodus.
Tell me about the stage set that you're developing for the tour.
What we've done over here in Europe was having video screens showing scenes of the band past and present. We want to bring that to the U.S. We want to give the fans not only a sonic, but also a visual experience of the band. We designed a stage that is based on the cover of "Hordes Of Chaos". You can see the hordes of chaos on the stage. While we're playing in the middle you can see the videos in the background. It's going to support the music and add something to the whole thing.
With the poor economy in Europe and the United States, does it concern you that fans may not be as willing to spend the money to come see a show?
Of course we see that the economy is going downhill, but in times like these people need something were they can forget about it for a while. I think a Kreator show is perfect for that, so I'm not worried.
What have been some of the biggest changes you've seen in the music industry in your almost 30 years working in it?
The industry of course has changed. The record industry has always been a business, and musicians are artists. There have been conflicts between artists and businessman since the music business began. The trick is to not let it get to you. It's getting harder for some bands to sell records, but in my opinion when you write quality music and release quality albums there's always a way to be heard. I'm happy with the way we get treated by the people that we work with at this point. We have a good team working for us.
There's an edition of "Hordes Of Chaos" that comes with a bonus DVD. Is adding things like that a way to have fans physically buy a CD instead of illegally downloading it?
I think our fans are going to buy the physical copy anyway because they want to have the full product, not a (crappy) MP3 ripoff from the internet. I know a lot of people listen to albums on the internet before they buy them, but metal fans are dedicated. They support their bands. I'm convinced our fans are going to like our new record.
Read the entire interview from About Heavy Metal.
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