Pleasure to Kill is the second studio album by German thrash metal band Kreator, released in November 1986 by Noise Records.[1] Background Pleasure to Kill is widely considered a landmark thrash metal classic,[1][2][3][4] along with Master of Puppets by Metallica, Peace Sells... but Who's Buying? by Megadeth, Reign in Blood by Slayer, Eternal Devastation by Destruction and Darkness Descends by Dark Angel, all released in 1986.[5] The album played a considerable role in the development of many extreme metal subgenres, and death metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse cite the album as an influence. The lyrical themes follow those found on their first album Endless Pain, containing descriptions of macabre scenes of death and horror. Just like that album, Kreator were a three-piece band during the recording of Pleasure to Kill; on some early pressings, guitarist Michael Wulf, who was briefly a member of Kreator, was erroneously credited as a band member in the liner notes. In a contemporary review, Oliver Klemm of the German Metal Hammer called Kreator "the best death metal band in Europe after Celtic Frost" and described the album as obviously inspired by Possessed's Seven Churches, but "even louder, even faster, even more brutal".[10] Rock Hard reviewer found the album very similar to Endless Pain and, despite the opaque drum sound, quite good by hardcore standards.[11] In a modern review, AllMusic writer Jason Anderson wrote that "many in the underground metal scene were already paying special attention to the German outfit's proto-death sound, but the cult status was shed after this critically and commercially successful second effort hit record-store shelves. As fierce and unyielding as the group's debut, Endless Pain, was, Pleasure to Kill provides double the sonic carnage and superior material."[8] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff acknowledged the importance of the album in "propelling the band into the trinity of the genre next to Destruction and Sodom", but was not very pleased by the "tech-thrash ugliness" of the music.[9] Commercial performance Coinciding with the 2017 remastered issue, Pleasure to Kill charted for the first time 31 years after its release, and peaked at number 99 on the German album charts. The remastered edition of the band's 1989 album Extreme Aggression charted on the same day.[12] Accolades Pleasure to Kill was ranked at number four on Loudwire's top ten list of "Thrash Albums NOT Released by the Big 4".[13] Legacy In the German Netflix series Dark, character Ulrich Nielsen is a fan of Kreator as a teenager, the lyric 'My only aim is to take many lives / The more, the better I feel' from the title track "Pleasure to Kill" leading police officer Egon Tiedemann to suspect Ulrich may be a Satanist. Pleasure To Kill had impact on the extreme metal scenes to follow. Petrozza told author Jon Wiederhorn in 2010, “And yeah, it probably is one of the essential records for the death metal movement. A lot of black metal bands even say that Pleasure to Kill is one of their main influences. 这个唱片有多个头衔，可以被称做是 Thrash Metal 历史上最精彩的唱片，也可以是最经典的德国式 Thrash Metal 代表作品，同时也是 KREATOR乐队自己的颠峰之作。 KREATOR也是在第二张作品中带来了自己最富创造力的作品，以至于自己都不能超越。从最开始的 Intro 到后面的8首歌曲，唱片建立一起一个没有缺憾的，传统 Thrash Metal 氛围。紧凑、流畅的旋律和套路是80年代金属的标志性做法，KREATOR显然是这方面的高手，不但变化繁多，而且衔接流畅。作为高手更重要的是，他们的Riff编得都很容易让人记住，听几编以后你会对唱片里面的歌曲留下深刻的印象。另外主唱表现也很出色，愤怒，沙哑，撕裂。 唱片的封面是曾经给 CELTIC FROST设计封面的大师完成；同时KREATOR主题也很强，全部都是杀戮和邪魔的故事，不亚于同期的SLAYER。整个唱片一气呵成，可以说这张唱片是一张真正的 Thrash，没有半点折扣。 After releasing the hit in the form of "Endless Pain", the guys from Kreator were filled with no less bloodlust and rage than a moment earlier, which of course meant that they did not make us wait any long for an equally ruthless sequel. This one was released with the speed of a hurricane, because only a year after their debut, and if that wasn't enough, on "Pleasure To Kill" the Germans clearly improved compositionally and in terms of technique, without losing any of the previous wildness and aggression, which is even present here more (about this later). In this way, as you can easily guess, the second lp by Mille & co. turned out to be a complete album in the context of the most furious varieties of thrash metal and an extremely influential album for the later death and black metal wave that took over the world. More than it was during the debut times. The confirmation hits the ears right after the intriguing intro of "Choir Of The Damned" - as a calm before the storm. The music on "Pleasure To Kill" became even more ruthless and aggressive, with more wild accelerations, and also gained a better, although still sultry atmosphere - despite the strange-sounding drum toms (something like Sepultura's "Schizophrenia", released a year later). These are huge advantages of "Pleasure To Kill", because the longplay is full of speed and brutality, it's quite diverse (also in terms of occasional medium tempos, i.e. they know how to dose them) and it does not stick to one pattern and you do not feel the naivety that was present on the debut. Mille Petrozza, Ventor and Rob Fioretti (by the way, for a moment the line-up included Michael Wulf on the second guitar, who does not play on "Pleasure...") throughout the entire eight songs are thrashing and shocking with aggression that is pleasant, without too similar patterns or that the chaos too often gets out of control. On "Pleasure To Kill", the Germans are presenting the loudly and fast vision of thrash metal, but it's a well-thought-out, conscious and refined bang. Listen to such killers as "The Pestilence", "Under The Guillotine", the title track, "Riot Of Violence" or "Ripping Corpse", which are full of brutality, good heavy metal melody, high aggressiveness and evil atmosphere. Finally, it's worth adding that in the case of "Pleasure..." there was a (not) small change in terms of vocals. Mille - 5 songs, and Ventor - 3. And it was a good move, because Mille's venomous and furious vocals were already characterized by his really unique style and went beyond the typical spitting of words. There is no point in recommending albums like "Pleasure To Kill" in more detail. This is a bible album when it comes to Teutonic thrash metal and an album from the series that every fan of metal (and extreme) sounds should know. Finally, on their second album, Kreator's characteristic style was born in its full glory, which was more or less modified in the following years and brought further successes, based on "Pleasure To Kill".