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Rating: The year is 2001 when Kreator releases "Violent Revolution". The band publishes it after a series of experimental albums, which diverged from thrash by broadening the band's musical horizons, but faced with this work, one immediately understands that Mille has violently swerved back onto track. The four Germans return to wreak havoc.
Even the cover is a whole program: dominated by a truly battered face, it takes us back ten years in the band's history, to "Coma Of Souls" … but the CD in question is anything but outdated. Despite the genre being unequivocally thrash, the sound is fuller and more powerful than ever; each member gives their best to shatter our eardrums. The Kreator of "Violent Revolution" have grown significantly since their early days and deliver structured songs with captivating melodies.
"Reconquering The Throne" opens the show, a powerful song that runs breathlessly, stopping only for a suspended solo that leads to a quick conclusion. It flows through to "The Patriarch", a short instrumental that keeps the tension high, up to one of the most successful songs on the album. "Violent Revolution" is slower than the first track but is certainly more engaging. In the middle of the track, the rhythm drops, and Petrozza's desolate and immense voice screams over the distorted guitars, only to unexpectedly gallop back to the initial riffs with an unexpected and engaging explosion. Next comes "All Of The Same Blood", a compelling song that doesn't lower the album's pace; a wave of violence overwhelms the listener when, at the end of each verse, among the guitars and double bass, Mille shouts "Legions forgotten by the gods" and everything falls silent. The fifth track starts slow and builds without too many surprises, a perhaps somewhat predictable piece that doesn’t spoil the whole.
"Second Awakening" is of a different kind, striking anyone (or at least me) from the first listen; with its catchy chorus and relentless rhythm, it certainly doesn't go unnoticed. The effect on the voice that opens the first two verses is immense and gives chills. "Ghetto War" is a song that conveys desolation and destruction, undoubtedly the most atmospheric piece of the album. Kreator have given us a thrash gem, and the most striking proof is the intricate eighth track: it opens with a melancholy arpeggio, over which the band's leader sings with a warm voice, until the music bursts into a fast, powerful rhythm… Is that it? No, after a few seconds, the Teutons decide to push the pedal again, revealing the track's raw power, fast and violent… slowing down just a bit to scream "Die in pain, die in pain, live in fear and die in pain" before regaining the reins of devastation, while Mille repeats: "Is only a Replicas Of Life". The initial arpeggio returns only briefly at the end, and we realize that eight minutes have passed without us noticing. In my opinion, this piece is one of the album's highest points (not coincidentally the favorite song of Jürgen Reil, the band's drummer) that, however, doesn't stop here. The ninth track disappoints those expecting a possible pause; "Slave Machinery" is heavy and to be digested all at once. "Bitter Sweet Revenge" starts along the lines of the previous one, only to reiterate that in this album, speed rules. Following is "Mind On Fire", another perhaps somewhat predictable song, with a catchy chorus and not much more. At this point, something makes our ears perk up, and a spurt of rage blasts through our system, the superb "System Decay" bursts in abruptly, a memorable song that closes a pure thrash metal album in the best way.
This CD is proof that Kreator can still crush our bones, and they do it better than ever… all the songs are driven by rage, rich in violence, but also with new and interesting insights, in my opinion, on par with 1980s thrash, which, at least for these four metalheads, is not quite dead.
"Society failed to tolerate me, and i have failed to tolerate society, still i can't find what you adore, inside i hear the echoes of an inner war, nothing can take the horror from me, your sick world the loss of all morality, my hate has grown as strong as my confusion, my only hope my only solution, is a Violent Revolution"
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Reconquering the Throne (04:13)
Paralyse the actions of the weak
Force fed propaganda preying on the meek
Individuals resisting defeat
Manipulate the colonies, infected by their seed
Vampires of possession
Shroud of cold distrust
Watching as you finally fall
Then drag you through the dust
The only way to save your soul
From scum with hearts of stone
Reconquering The Throne
Parasites have drained you from your mind
Anesthisize your conscience infliction will take time
Fools once trusted, guilty of the crime
Suck deep upon your energy, delusions lead the blind
Our rising has begun
A million hearts
not alone
Light the spark
Storm the throne!
03 Violent Revolution (04:54)
Society failed to tolerate me
And I have failed to tolerate society
Still I can't find what you adore
Inside I hear the echoes of an inner war
Nothing can take the horror from me
Your sick world, the loss of all morality
My hate has grown as strong as my confusion
My only hope, my only solution
Is a violent revolution
Violent revolution, violent revolution
Reason for the people to destroy
I do not need a cause for my rage
I just despise the nature of the human race
When all I see is repulsion and hate
Violence becomes my only friend, my saving grace
When love is lost beyond your control
A pale shadow of lust can not enlight your soul
So keep your ice cold bitter illusions
I don't need your empty world my only solution
Is a violent revolution
Violent revolution, violent revolution
Reason for the people to destroy
Beauty is no more it's all gone
An utopia will not come
Trust I can not feel, only pain
And my burning mind has gone insane
04 All of the Same Blood (06:12)
See them all marching beyond the horizon of hate
Bound by an ancient curse, annihilate
Nothing will break them apart
No sign of fear ever touches their hearts
So they endure side by side
Brothers in spirit their trust and their faith
Their bloodline
All Of The Same Blood, All Of The Same Blood
Legions forgotten by the gods
See them all marching towards the final frontier
Fantasies killed by realities cold atmosphere
Ambitions to purify
Cleansing all cast out dehumanise
Destroy all that crosses their path
Armies of totalitarian psychopaths
All Of The Same Blood, All Of The Same Blood
Legions forgotten by the gods
Is this what distopia breeds
Within the darkest beliefs
Taking utopia away
Distorted truth lead you astray
With time you will come to see
Deprived of the hope that was built on unity
And so the darkness fades, metropolis awakes
Another empty day in lives so dark and grey
And words of propaganda hammered into their heads
Consumers swastikas to put some life into the dead
05 Servant in Heaven - King in Hell (05:09)
Some may struggle and some may fall
One only follows, another one leads
And while some only endure constant slavery
Others satisfy their never ending greed
Some born to win, some born to loose
What fate may come, only time can tell
Better to live in sin than nothing else to choose
Servant In Heaven, King In Hell
Some may give and some may take
One only suffers others celebrate
And while some know that their time will never come
Others realise that it's never ever too late
Some see the dark, some see the light
What's in your view only time can tell
Better to taste the fire than swallowed by the night
Servant In Heaven, King In Hell
Some are cast aside as anger blinds the mind
Baptised in flames to lead again
To see them take it all a tearing of the heart
A thousand reasons for your hate
10 Bitter Sweet Revenge (05:25)
Jealousy has turned a man into a demon
Wounded from deep within
Love has turned to hate so murder fantasies
Beyond all reason can begin
And so your heart it fills with rage
Driven by words that sealed your fate
There’s nothing left as we descent
Upon your Bitter Sweet Revenge
Pain grows stronger than you ever thought it could
Kiss of Judas brings deceit
Necromancer waits biding time
The serpent's venom taste bittersweet
Outbreak of panic, once oppressed
Crisis of anger self possessed
On mental scars shadows descend
Upon your Bitter Sweet Revenge
Taken quickly with precision
Pay for all repulsive lies
What once started as a vision
Becomes reality's demise
Anger is coming like a lust now
Eating slowly through your mind
Everlasting penetration
Ignore the fear deep in the eyes
There ain’t no love without hate
There's no existence without fate
There's no beginning without end
There's no betrayal without revenge
11 Mind on Fire (03:57)
So set your mind on fire
And burn all bridges down
Ashes are left behind to lead you
Further underground
From this void of confusion
Into a sphere of light
Hypnotic great illusion
Keeps this bitter world outside
Nothing here to break you now as Eden becomes real
Nothing that can take away the pleasures that you feel
Orgies between ruins on the treasures of desire
Offered as a gift from god now as your time of suffering expired
Mind On Fire
To set your mind on fire
Brings total liberty
And as your soul burns
You'll awake in purest fantasy
And all those haunting demons
That live inside your head
Fade in this shining freedom
Where the angels fear to tread
Voices getting clearer now can you hear them call
Voices from a higher place mystifying all
Voices will not disappear in this souls empire
Voices of transgression ancient opium to take you higher
Mind On Fire
Holy drug of kings and queens
Like a cancer on the face of desire
For reality is not what it seems
And the rules were written down by a liar
12 System Decay (05:33)
Look into cities eyes
Mirror of souls
Now tell me what you see
Beneath the hole
Another sick
Another poor
Another slave
Another weak
Another lost
another dark System Decay
System Decay
I look into your eyes
Empty and cold
I'll tell you what i see
All that unfolds
Another sheep
Another dead
Another grave
Another cursed
Another doomed
Another dark System Decay
System Decay
Silence falls when worlds collide
Egos replaced souls in fields of lies
Minds and spirits sacrificed
Hearts controlled by a modern lord of flies
And in this dying world
Without a sun
Existing shadow like
Fear what may come
A poisoned arrow shot
Straight through your heart
And so you fade away
Within this dark system decay
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By tormentor
Violent Revolution returns to blow up our stereos with brutal speed and melodic interweavings.
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