The Cabinet's Metal Album of the Week: Kreator - Phantom Antichrist

I know this probably places me within a very small minority of metalheads, but I don’t like thrash metal.  I don’t like Testament or Anthrax; I like a few Megadeth songs, but I don’t particularly like the band; and while I can appreciate Metallica for being an important influence on dozens of metal bands and for helping metal receive more mainstream attention, I’ve never really liked them either.  (Claims that Metallica are the best heavy metal band of all time are ridiculous as it’s an objective fact that this honor belongs to Iron Maiden.)  One very notable exception is Slayer, whose Seasons in the Abyss is one of the reasons I’m a metalhead today. 

I don’t really know why I dislike thrash except that most of it just sounds angry, and I like my metal to be evil (the more references to Satan the better) or to have a horror/science fiction/fantasy theme.  This would explain why Slayer is the one thrash band I do like.  However, it might simply be that I haven’t explored enough beyond the biggest thrash bands to find ones I like.  After all, if my exposure to death metal was confined to Cannibal Corpse, one of its biggest bands, I wouldn’t like this subgenre either.

Whatever the case, Phantom Antichrist, the new album from German thrash metal band Kreator, has given me a good reason to give thrash a closer listen.  It’s another rare instance of the music on a metal album being as good as its cover, which pictures the antichrist as a puppeteer controlling the four horsemen of the apocalypse.  The album displays the speed, aggression, and squealing guitar solos you would expect from a thrash metal album, but it also features the kinds of melodic choruses more at home on power metal albums, making it hard to resist throwing up the metal horns and singing, “Phantom. Antichrist!” and “Death to the world!”  These melodies help it stand out from other thrash albums I’ve heard, as do the unique and powerful vocals, which, to my ears at least, sound like a demon singing, as opposed to the generic vocals I typically associate with thrash that just sound like some guy trying to sing fast enough to keep up with the music. 

  

As its title suggests, the songs on Phantom Antichrist are about the collapse of civilization and the destruction of the world.  Non-metalheads often wonder why anyone would want to listen to songs about death and destruction, and the answer, of course, is the same reason one would want to watch science fiction, fantasy and horror movies: pure escapism.  Most of the time, I don’t want to hear realistic lyrics that might have an emotional impact.  Obviously, I don’t want “berserkers [to] start a blood-chain of attacks/Against religion and all nations’ flags,” just as I don’t want a cross-dressing madman in a dead skin mask to massacre people with a chainsaw.  But in a perverse way, silly lyrics about destroying the world offer a temporary escape from life’s harsh realities.  Hearing a blues song about some guy who lost his job would only remind me of how much of a dumbass I was for leaving a good job I enjoyed to pursue a career I thought I would enjoy more.  I’m too busy headbanging to think about this fact when I hear a demon singing about the coming of the antichrist while his band mates wail on their guitars. 

Let’s be honest here; after dealing with the frustrations of a typical week, who hasn’t wanted to sing along with a song whose chorus says, “Death to the world!”?

Next week:  Asphyx – Deathhammer