Violent Revolution is the tenth studio album by German thrash metal band Kreator. It was released on 25 September 2001 and is the band's first album to feature lead guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö. After almost a decade of musical experimentation with their metal sound (starting with Renewal), with this album the band returned to their 1980s thrash metal style, although it does make use of Gothenburg metal elements.[citation needed] Violent Revolution is now considered to be the catalyst of the early 2000s thrash metal revival movement. Reception In 2005, Violent Revolution was ranked number 436 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. After years of wandering or - in the diplomatic version - searching for new identities, with the new millennium Kreator returned to thrash metal and sounds far from experimentation. However, this move was decided by as many as 3/4 of the "Endorama" line-up, as only Tommy Vetterli left Kreator, who was succeeded by guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö. With Finn, the group opened a new chapter, choosing the style from "Coma Of Souls" as a point of reference (the cover art already refers to it a lot), albeit in a much more melodic and even clearer sound setting. And although it was not such an exciting return, followed by a number of new, interesting patterns, it must be admitted that by the premiere of their tenth longplay in 2001 entitled "Violent Revolution", Kreator - at least at the beginning - turned towards normality and stopped exposing fans to constant stylistic volte-faces. Obviously, it also has its drawbacks, because such an approach often manifests itself in considerable conservatism, calculation, and even pandering to the audience, which can be observed here, although the material holds together so well and does not serve up strange, out-of-context solutions that do not appear on "Violent Revolution". There is no any titular revolution, of course, but it does bring a few differences compared to its thrash metal predecessors. As I mentioned, it's much more melodic and transparent in sound. The group is fully inspired by heavy metal catchiness, and even, holy crap!, the melo-death interpretation, which was boasted by bands like In Flames a few years earlier (who, by the way, were inspired by heavy metal, and how it turned out is another topic), while the production seems to be a bit clearer, although without such a boost as on "Endorama" and slightly reducing the heaviness. At this stage, fortunately, any such attempts at balanced (or, if you prefer, more mature) thrash metal did not particularly take away from Kreator's character, nor did they completely reduce the fast paces and general aggression. I also managed to mention that "Violent Revolution" refers to "Coma Of Souls" to a very significant extent. This is true, because there is a lot of that grace and a more civilized view of such music. So there are extended introductions, that more controlled aggression (without the element of chaos), numerous fast-medium tempos, concert catchiness and a more strongly marked brutality in the lyrics. In addition, there are also plot twists and breaking of classical structures, by which the dynamics returned to Petrozza's group, and the band sensibly avoids falling into a continuous verse-chorus pattern (which was a terrible nightmare last time, despite the different style). The new guitar acquisition of Kreator, Sami Yli-Sirniö, did equally well. On the one hand, the Finn brought a lot of solos that are reminiscent of late Death technique (although it's definitely not the same level of Schuldiner's finesse), and on the other, a lot of melodics and technical skills that heavy/power bands wouldn't be ashamed of. Well, the melodies themselves are also good. Sometimes they seem a bit forced and soften some of the stronger parts, but in most of them the band feels naturally and they harmonize with the more aggressive side of the album (which was a huge problem on much later recordings). However, for the first time in their career, the band tried a ballad intro/outro in a normal song - "Replicas Of Life". And interestingly, the song is very successful, starting from the gentle intro/ending with Mille's clean singing, ending with the classic, Kreator's fast paces and aggression. The rest, already in a strictly thrash metal and melodic sauce, does an impeccable job and takes known patterns into catchy and long-lasting songs like "Ghetto War", "Reconquering The Throne", "All Of The Same Blood","Bitter Sweet Revenge" or the title track. Closing the times of experiments, Kreator returned to thrash metal style in 2001 with good results, although in a clearly more melodic formula. The third chapter of Mille Petrozza's group turned out to be, over time, the least exciting and quite conservative in the history of Kreator, but commercially it allowed the quartet to soar even higher and there was no need to worry about the music itself being too far from Kreator's style. Regardless of certain flaws and the general stagnation in progress, "Violent Revolution" contains a lot of good songs on a par with classics, it's catchy and sounds like Kreator - which, for the most of the previous albums, was a problem before. Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal