Pleasure to kill, Kreators second album, is already something completely different from the first – End less Pain. I often speak of energy on debut albums, how they’re often superior in that aspect. Bu in Kreators case, it seems like they waited for the sophomore album to invoke this. Pleasure to kill is really wild and it bends the limit on what Thrash Metal is all about. I would go so far as to argue that Pleasure to Kill is so fast, hard and heavy that it becomes some kind of crossover Death Metal.
Once again lead vocals duties is split between guitarist Mille Petrozza and drummer Jürgen Reil. Bass is handled by Rob Fioretti. Mille takes up more space here than on the first album. He’s credited with more songs and he handles lead vocals on slightly more songs than Jürgen. I honestöy don’t understand how anyone can handlas vocals while also performing another instrument in these wild songs. I especially don’t understand how a drummer han manage it!
Both guitar and drums are very present and I guess thats what made this album such a milestone. It might not deliver on the same level as Master of Puppets, Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying, or Reign in Blood, all released in 1986. But you can summarize it by saying that 1986 was a ver good year for Thrash Metal. I think you might even argue that 1986 is the year of birth to the genre as a whole. Things were to evolve from there of course but there’s certainly a foundation being laid.
Speaking of that. I love Reign in Blood and I really don’t want to compare the albums to each other. But I can but it like this. If you though Reign in Blood was fast an furious, you haven’t heard Pleasure to Kill, which is even more so in my opinion. And… while were already in the domain on comparisons, the songs are not as catchy as they were on any of the other 1986 albums. Pleasure to Kill is still considered a cornerstone, but for me, it doesn’t really reach the same heights as the others.
