In the eyes of some die-hard fans, the band's 8th album, 'Outcast', caused Kreator to become outcasts. The legendary, violent thrash metallers had experimented earlier with their 1992 album 'Renewal', the album that many old fans banished to the deepest abyss. However, with 'Outcast' the band wanted to experiment again, and unquestionably brave they were.

'Renewal's successful, in my ears at least, thrash metal flirting with industrial elements happened again here, although in significantly different soundscapes. 'Outcast' is Kreator stripped to the bone, with atmosphere of nowadays' oppression and agitation. Metal this is, but thrash metal? No, except for a pinch maybe. It's Kreator style dark metal, I presume. I think that 'Coma of Souls' (1990) song 'People of the Lie' was a step towards to this kind of material. Anyway, let's dive deeper into 'Outcast'. Because the cover is a bad one, and not telling all about the album!

'Leave This World behind' immediately introduces the melody, and familiar pedantic guitar riffage and rhythm work make this one a roller. And what, no guitar solo?! No, they're for rock stars anyway. Mille Petrozza sounds, well, Mille, in all his ugliness (his raspy throat screams and trademark end of sentence stertor are all here). 'Phobia' is the album's 'People of the Lie', fast rolling headbanger. It is already evident, that Kreator sound bare here. The sound is heavy, no doubt about it. The bass is fantastically huge in the mix, bringing it to the front with guitars. Actually every instrument and vocals are consistent in volume, but because of the job well done, it doesn't sound clogged at all. Rather, the method gives required potency for the sound. On with the album again now...

'Forever' is one of the slowest Kreator songs ever. The experimenting with sound effects (not keyboards) is the key word here, they are brought in to give atmosphere and fluctuation. 'Black Sun' "raises" on speed level gambling; the song is even slower than the previous one! This goes almost into doom territories, let me tell you. Mille does some clean vocals, and pretty effective they are. Now you can feel other emotions than familiar violence and destructiveness from him. Whoa, the album's first guitar solo happens now! Over a slide guitar... Well, the band were experimenting, as mentioned earlier. 'Nonconformist' is more punky bullet train, at least the song feels fast among the slow songs. You can forget about guitar solos again. 'Enemy Unseen' contains very militaristic beats, but is a very uneventful and probably the simplest ever song from the band. The title song harks back to 'Renewal's atmosphere, being a fantastic piece with oppressive feel yet the chorus is totally anthemic. 'Stronger than Hate' is the most thrashing song on offer. Then it is time for songs that fall into the category of uneventful songs. 'Against the Rest' is one of the rockiest songs from Kreator, kind of predicting the future: 1999 and 'Endorama' album. 'A Better Tomorrow' saves the album from a big fall into mediocrity, but it's clear that 13 songs are a few songs too many with the amount of substance the band built them from. Maybe the melodiousness is the reason why there's not much solos. Even though the lyrics are mostly very negative and about real life, there are a few glimpses of light in them. Mille surely writes good words; he must know what he is saying. Also some of Mille's vocals are effected, but work nicely. The performances do not lack of nuances, as one might guess when looking at the line-up: "Ventor" behind the drum kit, Tommy Vetterli of Coroner fame on other guitar and Christian Giesler on bass.

I take this album as Kreator's so called "The Black Album" (in fact it is Metallica's self-titled one from 1992, as you might have guessed). In reality 'Outcast' is much, much deeper album. Some ditch it for not being thrash metal, but if you like Kreator and understand the band's soul, you might like this one too. Eleven years ago I would have given this quite a much lower score, but I've started to enjoy about this for a big part. However, I still find the album lacking in songwriting.

Rating: 7+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
07/24/2008 19:18