Kreator — Krushers of the World
Best Kreator since Phantom Antichrist. That's the consensus, and watching this it's hard to argue. Bogren on production, Bielak on the artwork, Carcass and Exodus on the tour. Forty-four years in and they didn't half-ass any of it.
Kreator formed in 1982. Mille Petrozza has been fronting them for forty-four years. Most bands this far in are doing victory laps on their classics, occasionally putting out a competent record that nobody really buys. Krushers of the World is not that. It sounds like a band that still has something to prove.
The reviews landed unusually aligned. Angry Metal Guy, Wonderbox, Your Last Rites. All in the “best since Phantom Antichrist” camp. That is not a small claim. Phantom Antichrist (2012) is the album that defined Kreator’s late-career renaissance. Hitting that bar four decades into a career is not where you would expect them to be.
Two production choices make this album feel deliberate. Jens Bogren producing at Fascination Street. Same engineer behind Opeth’s recent run, Sepultura’s Quadra, and Kreator’s own Hate Über Alles. Heavy without sterilising it. Second: Zbigniew Bielak on artwork. The Polish illustrator behind Watain, Mgła’s Exercises in Futility, Paradise Lost, and Behemoth’s The Satanist. The whole package screams “we took this seriously.”
The tour seals it. March 2026, Europe. Kreator with Carcass, Exodus, Nails. That is not a billing. That is a thrash and grindcore summit. If the live shows hold up to the album, this is the must-see European tour of the year.
Forty-four years in. Still not phoning it in. That is the whole story.
Listen to this: Kreator - Krushers of the World