1980-89, the decade that gave us Reaganomics, Chernobyl, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of the Cold War, was a period of classic film and music, too. For some, this meant synth-pop and childhood-defining adventure movies. For others, a golden era of violent slasher flicks and thrash metal emerged against the backdrop of significant social change. The two complimented each other, and the visual ultraviolence would—and still does—provide lyrical inspiration for the emergent sonic extremities of thrash and its howling bastard son, death metal.Enter German thrashers, Kreator. Arguably the most beloved of Germany's "Big Teutonic Four" (see also Destruction, Sodom, and Tankard), they, along with their regional peers, bridged the gap between fast, aggressive metal and all things dark, evil, and violent. Their 1986 full-length Pleasure to Kill is widely considered a significant influence on thrash and death metal alike, and in celebration of the upcoming reissues of their first four records, the band have released a newly-produced and downright killer video for its namesake title track."Grupa13 came up with the idea of filming the TV sets with old footage instead of using my original idea of just using the old material and edit it into a new video. I came up with the idea to add a trashy storyline that captures the vibe of the year 1986, when Pleasure to Kill was recorded," founding guitarist/vocalist and frontman Mille Petrozza explains. "The album concept was loosely based on a fake documentary called Faces of Death, and everyone in the band was a big fan of early slasher movies made by directors like Hershel Gordon Lewis, Lucio Fulci, and Tobe Hooper. This is our tribute to the glorious times of that genre. Don't take this video too serious—no hidden message on a metaphorical level here! We have kept this very simple and the idea is, to take you back on a trip to the eighties to celebrate the rerelease of our first four albums."Take a look for yourselves, it is exactly that: scenes cut between a chainsaw-wielding, hockey-masked stalker and cathode tube TVs playing classic-era Kreator footage, complete with that nostalgic VHS cassette noise. Snippets of old-skool show flyers and the song's violent lyrics only add to the awesomeness.Of course, a metal band releasing a horror themed music video is nothing new or revolutionary. It is, however, representative of what all great reissues should be—a cleverly repackaged and self-reflexive nod to a genre-defining release from a defining time in history.Preorder the reissues of Endless Pain, Pleasure To Kill Terrible Certainty, and Extreme Aggression here.
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