What do the hardest of the hardest among the metal musicians do if they are not on stage with deafening decibels? Do groupies cleverly, remove the churches and consuming tons of alcohol and drugs, through the country to leave only rubble and ash everywhere? Or do they prefer to sit in a herbal tea in the tour bus, meticulously analyze every little game error of the last appearance, cultivate their battered bodies, visit museums and meet their fans, who have been fans for decades, for a very rich chat before the next show – all with a good dose of humor and self -irony?
If you believe the documentary “Kreiter – Hate & Hope”, the answer is clear with the globally successful Metallers Creator. Director Cordula Kablitz-Post (“FCK 2020-two and a half years with scooter”) accompanied the quartet to various stations on its world tour to the still current 2022-long player “HATE OFFER”. The musicians present themselves credibly as ambitious, but also intelligent and integre types next door in Wacken, Japan, India and North America. They may look daring, but a children's fright is none of them. Rather, the opposite is the case. So many young people should benefit from taking the Esseners as a model.
On the stage, the metallers shout the eardrum from their fans out of their ears …
The majority of the term is filled with live recordings from all over the world plus loosely interspersed conversations with the band around front man/mastermind Mille Petrozza. But international colleagues such as anthrax or testament as well as crew members and admirers such as Die-Därzt-Star Bela B. and actor Lars Eidinger have their say. In addition, the whole thing is always illustrated by archive material from over 40 years of band history. The result is, like in the flight, 110 minutes, which should be interesting even for documentary fans, who are not necessarily able to do anything with Kreator's music or have not even ventured to them.
The creator founded in 1982 in the workers' district of Altenessen and still native to the German Speed Metal, which later had enormous influence on the development of globally popular styles such as Thrash and Black Metal. With the second album “Pleasure to Kill”, which is now considered to be trend -setting, the breakthrough. Despite various casting changes and occasional style corrections, creators continuously increased their popularity until they were able to start number 1 on the German LP charts for the first time in 2017 with “Gods of Violence”. So far, 15 studio works, three live albums and six concert films have been published. An end is still not foreseeable. Why too?
The satanistic curd remains in the fridge
Creator always operated a little differently. So they were one of the few metal groups of the 1980s that did not sang about historical and fantasy hocus-pocus, satanic curd cheese or the rock 'n' roll lifestyle with women, suffering and drugs. Instead, the Mille Petrozza influenced by the hardcore-punk in this regard occurred in his texts at an early stage, social grievances such as social injustice, homophobia and xenophobia. And mental problems have also been discussed again and again. This resulted in a not only intellectual but also emotional bond with many of their fans. The meetings to be seen in the film with some of them as part of autograph sessions and meetings &-& greets are touching. You can feel how much the encounter with their stars means to these people without it creepy Or is questionable, as can recently be seen in the Eminem documentary “Stans”.
The down-to-earthness that is propagated with a small tattoo studio by pictures of Petrozza on his bike or by drummer Jürgen “Ventor” in his down-to-earth, which is propagated with a small tattoo studio, is always absolutely credible. After all, you still rehearse in the same shabby-windowless space as at the beginning of the career. Even a bottle of beer is touched before their appearances. After all, they do not want to disappoint their followers who would have earned the best possible show for their acidic entrance fee.
… but in personal dealings with them, the boys from Kreizer prove to be astonishing and self -ironic.
This does not mean that creators have no fun here. In contrast to some other acts, however, they are obviously very serious about what they do. Her very new bassist, the likeable Frenchman Frédéric Leclercq, is still very new for looseness in the tour bus and thus also in the film by means of funny anecdotes and/or small misunderstandings. In addition, the past and the present of such an intensive and global touring group of course always have potential for moments in the direction of “This Is Spinal Tap”.
At that time it was guaranteed not always fun, but today creators can laugh heartily at one or the other absurd moment during their career. For example, when, as part of the first North America trip in 1987, naive, dreaming of existence as a rock stars found out that the evening show in some Kaff in the middle west was not booked as expected in a scene club, but in a family pizzeria. Then they had to put a few chairs and tables on the sidewalk, then performing children and construction workers at the after -work beer before a handful of birthday.
Lightning thunderstorms with bad consequences
A real highlight of the documentary is the open-air concert that was set in a Gelsenkirchen amphitheater in the summer of 2024. At this genre -historical event, the so -called “Big Four of Teutonic Thrash Metal” – Kreator Plus her colleagues from Sodom, Destruction and Tankard – performed together for the first time. Fans from the most remote corners of the globe came to experience this unique thing. In advance, everyone was not only happy about seeing the companions of the last four decades, but also again and again how nice it was that the weather would play along.
Just in time when the headliner creators go on stage, however, a hurricane storm brews himself over the Ruhr area. In the middle of the show, the local authorities are finally forced to literally pull the plug. Instead of saying “bad luck”, tipping a few beers and making a party like an appointment, the musicians sit downgraded down to the ground. Strictly, think about how to make this disappointment – for which none of them are responsible – could make up for the audience. Because they all know who they owe to not go underground like their fathers or, like their mothers, have to work at a supermarket fund.
Conclusion: “Creator – Hate & Hope” works as a classic “Rockmentary”, which competently prepares the career of a popular music act with the usual tools. On top of that, however, the film also succeeds in showing loosely entertaining, then very intensive way that people within one of the subjects determined by code and clichés can definitely go their own way and still have enormous success.