caption current_members associated_acts years_active label article_title landscape past_members background genre image origin name
live in kraków in 2009 miland reil christian ` speesy ' giesler sami yli-sirniö ` mille ' petrozza jürgen ` ventor ' sodom , destruction , coroner 1982 -- present epic , nuclear blast , steamhammer , drakkar , g.u.n. , noise kreator
 yes michael blackfire '' gosdzik tommy vetterli roberto `` rob '' fioretti wulf andreas herz joe cangelosi jörg `` tritze '' trzebiatowski frank `` group_or_band thrash metal kreator klub studio kraków 18 02 09 031.jpg essen , north rhine-westphalia , germany kreator
kreator

kreator is a german thrash metal band from essen .
their style of music is similar to their compatriots destruction , sodom and tankard , the other three big german thrash metal bands .
all three bands , except tankard , are often credited with helping pioneer death metal and black metal by containing several elements of what was to become the genre .
they originally performed a speed metal style with venom influences .
kreator 's work began in the vein of thrash metal but ventured into industrial metal and gothic metal from 1992 to 1999 , before eventually returning to their classic thrash sound to date .
kreator has released thirteen studio albums , two eps , one live album and three compilation albums .
the band released its debut album `` endless pain '' in 1985 .
although many of their previous albums , including `` pleasure to kill '' -lrb- 1986 -rrb- , were quite popular in the united states , kreator did not experience major american commercial success until the 2009 release of their twelfth studio album , `` hordes of chaos '' , which peaked at number 165 on the `` billboard '' 200 and debuted at no. 16 on the media control charts .
`` hordes of chaos '' was followed three years later by `` phantom antichrist '' , which was also successful and peaked at higher chart positions in many countries .
kreator has been working on a new album , which is due for release around 2017 .
