By Desmond Osorio

By 1986, everyone – at least those with a penchant for fast, loud, and pounding metal – knew that Thrash music was sweeping America. The major bands of this time, those that would be known to history as The Big Four – Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax, were taking over the world through touring and underground tape trading. It would be this underground tape trading movement that would bring to prominence one of Europe’s most prodigious and resilient bands of our time: Kreator.

In Europe, specifically Germany, there was a growing metal scene that was being fed by overseas tape trading of American thrash bands – bands like Overkill, Exodus, Testament, and “The Big Four,” along with European bands like Mercyful Fate (Denmark), Celtic Frost, and Coroner (the latter two from Switzerland). In this growing maelstrom, Germany gave birth to three bands: Destruction, Sodom, and Kreator. 1985 saw Kreator’s first foray into the scene with the surprisingly catchy Endless Pain (Noise Records, 1985). Black Metal bands of today cite Endless Pain as a heavy influence on their music when employing Thrash Metal qualities into their music.*

The year 1986, however, would prove to be a different year entirely with the release of Pleasure To Kill.