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Rating:
They may not be as famous as the major bands from the renowned Bay Area, but Kreator undoubtedly deserve great respect, and at least in Europe, no one has been able to compete with them in the genre.
The year was 1990 when Mille Petrozza and company created their fifth masterpiece, "Coma of Souls." It's the band's last purely thrash album: the '90s will indeed be characterized by different and more experimental works until a return to harder sounds in the new millennium. Much of their fame is rightly due to previous albums like "Pleasure to Kill" and "Extreme Aggression," but Kreator has consistently managed to deliver excellent records on all fronts, as demonstrated by "Coma of Souls." Every time I listen to them, I am always amazed by the perfect combination of power and technique that sets them apart from American thrash, which is slightly more melody-centered.
"Coma of Souls" doesn't greatly differ from previous works; from the first to the last song, all the qualities that have always distinguished the band can be found: violence, immediacy, speed, just like all Teutonic thrash evidently influenced by Slayer. However, compared to its predecessors, there's an improvement in production and, consequently, in the sound of the guitars and especially the bass. As for the vocals, well, there's nothing to say here, it's the usual brutal Mille, unapologetic and blunt.
The slow and sad acoustic beginning almost seems to prepare us for the album's destructive power. From Mille's first scream to the end, there will indeed be no pause. The guitar riffs are always fast and powerful, and in many songs, there are melodic but very peculiar solos. Also noteworthy is the performance of drummer Ventor, whose technique has greatly improved compared to the early works.
Analyzing the songs in more detail, the title track is a classic of the band that conveys violence in every single second, characterized by various tempo changes and an exciting chorus, certainly very beautiful live. Other notable songs include "People of the Lie" (where Mille's voice becomes even more vicious), "Terror Zone", and "Agents of Brutality", especially for the riffs of Mille and the other guitarist Frank in the middle of the track. Influences from Slayer are evident, but also from Sepultura ("Mental Slavery"), and there are also short pieces that, as always, maintain a certain power from beginning to end ("World Beyond").
In conclusion, an album I recommend to all thrash lovers and consider, if not the best, one of the most beautiful by the German band, the only one that has managed over the years to stand up to American groups.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 When the Sun Burns Red (05:31)
Savage heat is searing
Global warming has begun
Mother Earth is reeling
No protection from the sun
Forest fires are raging
While the rivers turn to ice
Foolish man creating
Mother Nature's cruel demise
Hailstorms, tornadoes
Cold spells, untimely frosts
Heat waves and blizzards
Global death's the cost
Faces the end of time
As we plunge headlong towards the day
Can't deny the signs
When the sun burns red
The earth will turn
From blue to gray
Winter turns to summer
Then the seasons disappear
No one needs a prophet
To explain what's all too clear
Oceans overflowing
Islands drowning everywhere
Leaders wouldn't admit it
Now they're crying in despair
Hailstorms, tornadoes
Cold spells, untimely frosts
Heat waves and blizzards
Global death's the cost
Face the end of time
As we plunge headlong towards the day
Can't deny the signs
When the sun burns red
The earth will turn
From blue to gray
Now rain shall wash away sad remains of man
Cities once so proud will crumble into sand
Buildings all collapse when all is done and said
The guilty ones will die with the innocent...
When the sun burns red
02 Coma of Souls (04:18)
Masters of war
Merchants of false peace
Bleeding the lives of the lost
Feeding them terminal disease
Breaking the rules
No matter who gets hurt
Wholesaling useless trash
Charging twice what it's worth
Freedom of thought a mirage
The coma is endless and deep
Feeling so worldly and wise
Fooled by the friends that we keep
Spirits on ice
They'll never be free
One-dimensional lives
Will the coma of souls outlive eternity
Children are pawns
For generals to play with and kill
Mercy will never be found
Where mayhem is done for the thrill
Righteous crusades
Murder to honor a god?
No one is saved
Dead bodies shrivel and rot
Freedom of thought a mirage
The coma is endless and deep
Feeling so worldly and wise
Fooled by the friends that we keep
Spirits on ice
They'll never be free
One-dimensional lives
Will the coma of souls outlive eternity
Deep in the unconscious mind
Lies the oldest wisdom
Buried by centuries
Of war and inquisition
Truth is raped and crucified
By men with savage brains
And greed flows forth in endless waves
From fools to wretched slaves
Coma of Souls!
03 People of the Lie (03:16)
Don't look at me as if I didn't know
Your vanity is all you ever show
What you believe and advocate
Fanatic dogma recycled from yesterday
Got a master plan
Genocide
Can't understand
People of the lie
You are to me the waste of flesh and blood
I'd love to see you buried in the mud
And when you die no one will shed a tear
So pass me by don't need your hatred here
Got a master plan
Genocide
Can't understand
People of the lie
Prejudice, intolerance, eye for an eye
[SOLO - FRANK]
You cannot hide behind those empty claims
Your racist pride is nothing but a game
And you will lose for right is on the side
Of those who choose to fight for humankind
Got a master plan
Genocide
Can't understand
People of the lie
You can't believe
Don't be deceived
05 Terror Zone (05:58)
My inner eye sees many spheres
A cruel dimension where time and space
Distort beyond control
A ride to another center of the Universe
My thoughts come undone make me see
The dark stains on my soul
A darkness as cold as ice surrounds me in this place
I probe a veiled phobia, all my own
Creatures crawl out from my weirdest,
Wildest dreams
They are flesh, not fantasy,
They drag me inside the...
Terror zone
Demons, ghouls, and fiends that once
I could ignore
Shred the skin and flesh from my bones
Planets form and die,
The cosmos torment me
Unnatural, humongous, never ending...
Terror zone
Now I know what dwells within me
Blood - a river of sweat and tears
Flesh - a land God left behind
Soul - a sky of cloudy fears
Deception and disguise
Dissolve before my inner eyes
My heart turns to stone
God, I'm all alone
Oh, no!
All alone
Terror zone...
08 Twisted Urges (02:46)
Fulfilling morbid dreams
Of those who never have time to sleep
Enduring to extremes
Held by a promise that they won't keep
Dark silence is so real
Walls painted black as night
Locked up in chains of steel
Down in the cellar nothing is right
Mistress of perversity
Unwilling tool of other's lust
Witnessing abnormality
With no one left to trust
Hell couldn't be this bad
Sold by her father to gratify
She never had a chance
Raped, beaten, sodomized
Her martyred soul cries out
Yet no one hears her scream
Her world is fear and doubt
She's a prisoner of this grotesque scene
[SOLO - MILLE]
[SOLO - FRANK]
Mistress of perversity
She never had a chance
Raped, beaten, sodomized
Twisted urges drove her to the end
09 Hidden Dictator (04:51)
No shape, no form, no brain, no mind
But the power to control all resistance
Its awesome might cannot be denied
By the world that ignores its existence
Older than time - stranger than life
Don't look for a sign without warning it will arrive
It can read your mind
See the world inside
Oversees your life
Decides the day you die
Silent lifetaker
Sentient creator
Worlds recoil in fear
Of the hidden dictator
[SOLO - FRANK]
[SOLO - MILLE]
Presence beyond our imagination
Horrible being of fate
Not one sign of its domination
God prays it never awakes
Older than time - stranger than life
Don't look for a sign without warning it will arrive
It can read your mind
See the void inside
Oversees your life
Decides the day you die
Silent lifetaker
Sentient creator
Worlds recoil in fear
Of the hidden dictator
Worlds have risen, lived and died under its obscene command
Kept the balance of galaxies in its omnipotent hands
[SOLO - FRANK]
Minds of greedy distortion
All are destroyed in its wake
It judges the worth of the low forms of life
Who cower and quiver and quake
Some may call it the savior
Fall to their bellies and pray
Some will try to resist in the hope they'll exist
To experience just one more day
And the lost shall pray for forgiveness
And the fearful and weak start to scream
As the terrible nightmare of a dying world
Becomes beauty beyond any dream
One world must end
New ones begin
A pure life form
From death is born
Silent lifemaker
Sentient creator
The new world is blessed by the hidden dictator
10 Mental Slavery (05:44)
Land of solitude
A place of horror dark and cruel
There's no need to seek the truth
Opinions are provided for you
Innocence of youth
Full of visionary fantasies
From subconscious laboratories
Try to break the chains of barbarity
Servants to mother machine
Nursed by video screens
Paradise of insanity
Born into a grave of
Mental slavery
Lost in dark reality
Mental slavery
Memories of the past
Holy empires of harmony
Visions only children see
Are soon removed by society
Replaced by numbing fear
The horror show of rules sets in
Total control of thought begins
Another car on the highway of sin
Servants to mother machine
Nursed by video screens
Paradise of insanity
Born into a grave of
Mental slavery
Lost in dark reality
Mental slavery
Just one of a million slaves
An expendable commodity
This song's for those who serve
The system of terror
That rules the earth
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Other reviews
By aniel
"They are the European Slayer."
"This record may not be a masterpiece, but it remains undoubtedly one of their classics."
By sofficino
We are facing a masterpiece from the 80s, a record different from Violent Revolution or Enemy of God or Pleasure to Kill.
This album is one of the masterpieces of the 80s and one of the best thrash albums that form the trinity.
