Kreator, 20th June 2025, Heviti, Copenhell Festival

Photo: Goran www.facebook.com/UrbanMescaleroPhotography

Kreator are frequent visitors to both the Copenhell festival and Copenhagen itself. The band has just announced a new documentary, and frontman Mille Petrozza is currently working on a book. According to Petrozza, recording for their new album has just been completed, which likely means we’re looking at an early 2026 release.

The last time the band played Copenhell was during the Gods of Violence–era, so the festival audience didn’t get to experience any songs from their most recent album Hate Über Alles –  unless they caught Kreator on their co-headlining tour with Lamb of God in Copenhagen back in 2023.

There’s an unshakable reliability to Kreator live shows. You know what you’re getting – but that predictability never diminishes the impact. In fact, it’s hard not to be drawn in again and again. That’s partly because of how unbelievably good Kreator are at what they do. So good, in fact, that even though their formula rarely changes, they still manage to awe their audience every single time.

They do it all with such conviction and ease, which is impressive enough – but even more so when you consider their age and just how physically demanding Kreator’s music is to perform.

It doesn’t get much more classic than opening a show with “Violent Revolution,” and even before launching into the second song, Petrozza had already orchestrated the first of many wall-of-deaths.

The 14-song set touched on a large portion of the band’s career, featuring material from no fewer than 11 albums, plus the standalone single “666 – World Divided.” It was a smart, safe setlist – but also a cleverly constructed one. While the band’s most recent albums might not be their finest, the three songs included from them worked extremely well live. In particular, “Satan Is Real” and “Hordes of Chaos (A Necrologue for the Elite)” felt so vital that it’s hard not to imagine them becoming permanent fixtures in Kreator’s live set.

The title track from Phantom Antichrist reminded everyone just how strong that album is. It’s also the record that truly brought the band back into the spotlight in 2012.

Throughout the show, Petrozza deployed every frontman cliché in the book – but he’s mastered them, and in a festival setting, they work, perhaps even better. For 75 minutes, he held the crowd in the palm of his hand. There were countless singalongs, wall-of-deaths, mosh pits, and crowd surfing, keeping the security staff very busy.

Kreator make it all look easy – but never at the expense of intensity or energy. Getting to that level takes hard work and unwavering focus. It’s not something that just happens, and it shouldn’t be taken for granted. Kreator delivered not just a lesson in thrash metal – but a powerful reminder that dedication, focus, and perseverance pay off.