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Rating: 1992: winds of change are blowing in the Kreator house.
The eighties thrash, the hard and pure one, to be clear, seems to have a hard life in the nineties: the "Black Album" legitimizes "heavy" metal and makes it accessible to new segments of paying audiences; the groove of the Darrell brothers gains followers in an increasingly Pantera-influenced world, ready to embrace Nu sounds. An additional opportunity to ride their sonic intransigence, right? Not at all!: overtaken in violence and speed by death metal and the emerging black metal, eighties thrash suddenly awakens in a steel lung.
The first to realize this were indeed the German Kreator, who, after the sublime sonic scavenges produced in the previous decade, decided to shake off an attitude that had become decidedly obsolete.
But the change perpetrated by Kreator is not an opportunistic adjustment to the changing tastes of an ever more demanding audience: it is the slow yet evident maturation of their leader, who, album after album, achieves the feat of transforming the original bone-crushing thrash into something intimate, personal, with existential nuances, as we have rarely seen in extreme music (the Death of the never-too-mourned Chuck Schuldiner come to mind). Mille Petrozza thus sheds the worn out garb of the relentless thrasher and with a certain courage shows us his more "sensitive" soul; his music, always interested in social and sometimes political themes, itself becomes a reflection on society, a raw metaphor of reality.
It's a pity no one understood it: a very controversial chapter in the discography of the Teutonic band, "Renewal" has the audacity to introduce timid experiments that will earn Mille Petrozza the title of "merdallaro" of the year, a status he'll hardly be able to shake off in the following years (embarrassing, after the commercial flop, is the abrupt reversal with the anonymous and cold "Cause for Conflict", a tribute to the sonic violence of their beginnings). Permeated by apocalyptic visions and torn by industrial incursions, "Renewal" is actually a fresh, ingenious album from the cover onwards: definitely one of the darkest ever produced by the Teutonic band. An album that, nevertheless, manages to combine the violence of the past with the dark suggestions that will be embraced in the future (and that will explode definitively in works like "Outcast" and "Endorama").
Yes, because to understand that Petrozza & co. haven’t softened at all, just press play and get overwhelmed by the superb opener "Winter Martyrium", which starts off rhythmically (great performance by "Ventor" Reil on drums), only to explode into a compelling race against the wind, where Mille seems to reach for all the air his lungs can provide. And is the title track any less? A powerful mid-tempo (which still proudly features in the live setlist today), "Renewal" is the artist's desperate cry, the apotheosis of the tragic current that runs through the entire album. An album in which rage, frustration, and utopia constantly meet and clash.
"Brainseed" and "Zero to None" (respectively fourth and seventh tracks) will certainly not go down in the history of extreme music, but bolstered by an unprecedented hardcore fury (the tearing screams driving them are intense) and darkened by icy industrial counterpoints, they prove to be genuine blows to the teeth. Tracks that, when examined closely, make the songs of the much more acclaimed and canonical "Coma of Souls" pale in comparison (an album that in my opinion has aged poorly, lacking bite and conviction: a weak continuation of the "extreme aggressions" of the past).
So, what made you so angry? What outraged you so much? The minute and a half of samples in the instrumental "Realitaskontrolle"? The labyrinthine melodic evolutions of a song like "Reflection"?
In reality, atmosphere and melody serve Petrozza's design, who, with an unusual penetration into the metal universe, manages to insinuate himself into the fractures of a world that is changing and heading towards a fairly uncertain future. In 1989, the Berlin Wall had in fact fallen (and I do not exclude, a completely personal opinion, a play on words between "wall" and "renewal"): the frigid winds of the Cold War seem to have finally dissipated, but what future awaits this new and "free" Europe? To a codified world, in fatal balance, where the players and the rules of the game emerge clearly, a nebulous mirage appears, behind which new haunting scenarios lurk, where flesh-and-blood totalitarianisms can be replaced by new invisible, and therefore much more fearsome, totalitarianisms.
Hence the sense of bewilderment, the fear in the face of the ghost of mind manipulation, of consciousness control, themes on which the entire work hinges ("Brain Seeds" a title above all), a mirror of a German where confusion, euphoria, and fear merge. Visions that emerge vividly in the violent "Europe After the Rain" (perhaps the album's best moment), sensations that can be palpable in the desolate sonic spiral of "Karmic Wheel", a kind of apocalyptic "ballad" where the most bitter and reflective Kreator emerge: spine-tingling is the atmospheric interlude, where a slow crescendo of bass, barely-there guitars, and chilling samples culminates in an elegant end-of-the-world solo. Listening to this piece, spitting on "Renewal" means spitting on Isis, on Opeth, on all those who have wisely built their careers on the alternation of violence, melody, and elegant progressive counterpoints.
The concluding "Depression Unrest" closes these tragic reflections by depicting a Europe, perhaps a World, adrift: the refrain, which oozes a despair fused with an unprecedented fragility for the band, represents one of the album's most significant moments, which fades out in desolation. In Mille's cry, however, there's that tremor, that passion, that desire not to give in despite the fear, despite the overwhelming forces to conquer. Resist resist resist: it is the voice of a generation that sets out, lost, in an icy, dehumanized, insane world, pregnant with pitfalls, hypocrisy, and lies.
Not all tracks are excellent, this should be said: the experiment does not always succeed and there are quite a few awkward ingenuities of a former-brutal grappling with his first "singer-songwriter" work. In terms of production, finally, there was room for improvement, much improvement (generally the solos were penalized, while the dry sound of the drums does not sit well with the dark languor of the guitars): with more powerful and clear sounds perhaps we would have had a completely different work in our hands.
However, "Renewal" is certainly not an album to be discarded, precisely because it represents the creative impetus of an artist who, despite having made the history of extreme music (and thus being able to enjoy a comfortable snooze on his laurels), decides at a certain point to break the restrictions of a music that evidently no longer belongs to him and reveal himself in his most shocking nakedness. Praise to Mille Petrozza, for his courage and for the always diverse emotions he has been able to give us over the years.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Winter Martyrium (05:43)
[M: Petrozza/Gosdzik/Fioretti/Reil ú L: Petrozza ú c Dark Wings]
[We thought we could use this live recording from Lichtenfels, Germany '92, to give you an impression of the energy exchange between us and our fans. that can only be created in a club or concert hall. No matter in which part of the world we play, it's always the universal language of metal music that connects us with people from all kinds of different cultural backgrounds. It might sound like a clich©, but to me it's one of the most precious gifts in life!!!]
Hypnotized by the masses
And a future torn apart
Angony, the final conflict
Hatred yet ignored
Love is colder than death
And in coldness we'll remain
Everlasting lies in chains
Destroying dreams against all norms
They spread it all across the earth
Dominion without a form
Winter martyrium
Dead civilization on a mission
Lead by gods
Etiquette creates a cause
To turn your back from life
Secrets never told before
Construct culture absurd
Hit you like a shellshock
As integrity has died
Destroying dreams...
Wide awake to the end
Wide awake to the end
Crisis and perpetual incest
Performance of a nameless act
Sadness takes your concentration
Individual cages that we face
Destroying dreams against all norms
They spread it all across the earth
Dominion without a form
Winter martyrium for masses
And a future torn apart
Agony, the final conflict
Hatred yet ignored
[Performed live in Lichtenfels]
02 Renewal (04:35)
Imperfection, new temptation
Innocence will breed new life
Disillusion, desperation
Free my mind and let it rise
Mass enslavement, brutal torment
Tomorrow will they see it clear
Resurrection, disconnection
Substance that can make us fly without fear
Without fear!
Never to be seen again
Ever to release the pain
Renewal of your mind
Female's poison, male aggression
Distance to reality
Foreign places, fallen kingdoms
Always keep secrets from me
Subliminal, disciplinal
The art of lying lives on and on
As we struggle, as we suffer
Inferior to life renewal has begun
Never to be seen again
Ever to release the pain
Renewal of our minds
Renewal of my mind
Renewal of my mind!
Isolation, illumination
Modern men embrace the light
War believers, peace deceivers
Remaining in eternal night
Politicians, fake musicians
Create no relationships
Hate frustrators, penetrators
Resistance from a path that should not exist
Never to be seen again
Ever to release the pain
Renewal of my mind...
...of my mind!
04 Brainseed (03:17)
----------------
Indication of the essence
Concentrating on mass submission
Crying race philosophy
Sacramental confidence
Discovered desire
Hesitant intelligence
Impersonate integrity
Aging trauma from the past
Depending on naivety
Personified tyranny
Seeds of distorted thoughts
Planted into the brains of us all
Burn the brain
In this cold world, we go on
Our generation
Won't support this system anymore
Panic spreads among the victims
Driven to absurd copulation
Magnetism leaves them passive
Sceptical towards awareness
Serial misfortune
Seeds of distorted thoughts
Planted into the brains of us all
05 Karmic Wheel (06:05)
Shelter me for I am locked in a world
That lost the will to be free
Dying age a chronicle of forgotten peace
Replaced by hate
Rescue me for all I can do is try
To escape this reality
Trip away color the night until the
Sun awakes another day
The karmic wheel is turning
Faster than before
Cover me with lifesblood essence
Leading me to a cosmic desire
Sent from God the spark of an earthly
Existence leaves new ornaments
Burn my psyche lead it to the
Crystal stake and set it on fire
Here to stay before it could begin
You lead it to the end
The karmic wheel is turning
Faster than before
Till the end of time, till the end of life
The wheel is turning as we die
(Keep turning)
Come with me, to where all greed
Ends honesty is all that matters
Far from here, awareness far beyond
Industrial intellect
Lay on me for the ones who felt
The same way won't forget us
All I lose concrete slavery
Liberty so imperfect
The karmic wheel is turning
Faster than before
Till the end of time, till the end of life
The wheel is turning as we die
(Keep turning)
07 Zero to None (03:11)
Dominance in devotion
Grabs us and disappears
Have to take some direction
Through the glass that we must break
Zero to none
Killing radical
The instinct to destroy what's left
Lives in everyone
All prepared for the moment
Yet to come complete the rest
Patriots all confused by
Characters of broken men
Zero to none
Killing radical
The instinct to destroy what's left
Lives on in everyone
A dream within a dream
A womb within a grave
Calm without a riot
Every heart, every soul, all the trust
Terror wars are radical
A dream within a dream
A womb within a grave
Calm within a riot
All the peace, all the hope, all the trust
As desperation takes everyone
God's hell is radical
08 Europe After the Rain (03:18)
[M: Petrozza/Gosdzik/Fioretti/Reil ú L: Petrozza ú c Dark Wings]
[The announcement to "Europe....." on this live recording is an anti-racist, anti-Nazi statement that I thought should appear on this compilation even though - or maybe because - it's in German.]
Indecisive government
Regardless of brutal punishment
Indestructable regiment
Twice as many lives
Perversion never too bizarre
Can't remember who we are
Influenced us to get this far
Emotions paralyzed
Monotony provokes the escalation
Terrifying industry protect departed nations
Can't get back together again
Leaving Europe after the rain
Acceptance of neo-fascist
Persecuting anarchists
Put the wrong ones on the list
Let the new age begin
Monotony provokes the escalation
Terrifying industry protect departed nations
Can't get back they're going insane
Leaving Europe after the rain
Can't look at the world the way I did before,
Can't ignore they've all mutated into materialistic
parasites
Can't forget the pictures I saw on television
Can't close my eyes on this abstract spectrum
Tomorrow I'll be gone
Forcing them to support without asking
Imprisoned in factories for a lifetime
Reasons are becoming meaningless
Optimism leaves the bitter taste of hopelessness
Tomorrow I'll be gone
Monotony provokes the escalation
terrifying industry protect departed nations
Can't get back they're going insane
Leaving Europe after the rain
A complex keeps the industries
In motion, for some new disease
Bound to those who still resist
Yet harder to find
Monotony provokes the escalation
terrifying industry protect departed nations
Can't get back they're going insane
Leaving Europe after the rain
[Taken from the album "Renewal" ú 1992]
09 Depression Unrest (05:05)
Ending all religions
Changes yet to come
Whole new situation
Fear became too strong
Send a spark of hatred
To where I cannot rest
My fate's depending on me
Pushed to the test
Depression unrest
As I watch the sky
The sparks will keep on falling
And I despise you now
Praying for forgiveness
Waiting for a sign
It cannot be forgotten
A symbol used to shine
Feel the spark of hatred
Spreading like some pest
Emotional mutation
Curse of the west
Depression unrest
As cultures die
The sparks will keep on falling
And I hate you now
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