Kreator - Hate Uber Alles (2LP) - Black & White Marbled Vinyl

Four decades in, Kreator still sound like a band with something to prove. Hate Über Alles, released on June 10, 2022 through Nuclear Blast, is the kind of late-career statement that feels lean, vicious, and oddly hopeful, even as it surveys a world cracking under rage. It is their fifteenth studio album and the first to feature bassist Frédéric Leclercq, whose presence tightens the engine room with Jürgen “Ventor” Reil and gives Mille Petrozza and Sami Yli-Sirniö the space to swing between serrated riffs and skyward melodies.

The record opens with a wink of cinema. Sergio Corbucci Is Dead sets a tense, dusty mood, then the title track bursts in like a riot siren. Hate Über Alles moves fast, but it is not chaos. Arthur Rizk produced the album, and his ear for weight and clarity gives these songs a punch that hits hard without blurring the edges. Guitars bite, toms thud, the bass glues it together. When the hook lands on Strongest of the Strong, it snaps like a banner in the wind, a straight-ahead anthem built for big rooms and hoarse throats.

Kreator have always spiked their thrash with melody, and that balance is sharp here. Midnight Sun is the curveball that seals it. German singer Sofia Portanet guests, her voice cutting a cool line through the chorus while the band surges around her. The video’s candlelit, ritual atmosphere matches the song’s tense beauty, but it still feels like Kreator, no compromise. Conquer and Destroy, Killer of Jesus, and Become Immortal trade tempo and mood without losing the thread. Become Immortal plays like a love letter to their beginnings in Essen, a salute to battered rehearsal spaces, sweaty clubs, and the stubborn faith that heavy music is a lifelong pact.

Petrozza’s writing is blunt about what is eating the world, but he keeps a human scale. Hate Über Alles is less about slogans than it is about how it feels to live with the noise turned all the way up. Dying Planet closes the record with a slow, ominous churn, environmental dread tightening around every measure, until the last feedback sighs out. It is a striking way to end a thrash album, a reminder that fury is a tool, not the destination.

Rizk’s production deserves another nod because it lets the band show their age in the best way. There is depth in the cymbals and air around the solos. Yli-Sirniö’s leads sing, sometimes with a classic metal sweetness, sometimes like a buzzsaw. Ventor’s groove keeps everything grounded when the tempos surge. Leclercq slots in as if he had always been there, adding nimble runs that reward a careful listen. Spin it on a good turntable and those details bloom, the kind of record that makes you reach for the sleeve again just to study the credits between sides.

If you collect Kreator albums on vinyl, this one is a no brainer. The low end loves wax, and the pacing across the two sides makes sense, with the title track and Strongest of the Strong lifting the first half and the darker sweep of Dying Planet giving side B a heavy landing. I grabbed my copy after hearing Midnight Sun on a late night radio show, then spotting the jacket at a Melbourne record store a week later. You could just as easily buy Kreator records online if you are hunting a specific pressing, especially if you are picking through vinyl records Australia retailers who stock the European editions. Either way, Hate Über Alles vinyl belongs next to the classics.

Kreator vinyl always carries a certain promise, and this album delivers on it. The riffs are sharp, the choruses stick, and the band sounds present, not coasting on legacy. Hate Über Alles is not a reinvention, it is a reminder that thrash can still feel urgent when the songs are built to last. If you have been with them since Pleasure to Kill, there is plenty here to grin about. If you are new and curious, start here, then work backward. Few bands earn a late-era surge like this, and fewer still make it sound this effortless.