For four decades, Mille Petrozza has been the ferocious voice of European thrash metal, guiding Kreator through lineup changes, stylistic shifts, and global domination. With such a sprawling history, fans might expect his newly released autobiography to be a massive, encyclopedic tome covering every era of the band. However, Petrozza has taken a different approach. In a new interview with Australia’s “Flying The Metal Flag,” the frontman revealed why his book, “Your Heaven, My Hell,” abruptly concludes in 1993—and why he believes the typical rock biography format is often “boring.”
Released on August 28 via Ullstein Verlag, the German-language book—full title “Your Heaven, My Hell – Mein Leben, Heavy Metal Und Wie Das Alles Passieren Konnte“—was co-written with journalist Torsten Groß of the German Rolling Stone. According to Petrozza, the decision to limit the timeline was a creative choice to preserve the narrative’s energy.
“I had a co-author, a friend of mine, Torsten Groß… There was this publishing company here in Germany, which is one of the bigger ones, Ullstein books, they asked me to write an autobiography,” Petrozza explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “And I was, like, ‘You know what? I think it could be a little bit repetitive and it could be a little boring to write like a book with 1,200 pages or something, talking about each album, and anything from 1985 to 2025.'”
Rather than documenting every studio session and tour cycle up to the present day, Petrozza pitched the project as a “coming-of-age” story. The narrative arcs from his birth up to the release of the band’s divisive and experimental 1992 album, Renewal.
“So I asked them, ‘You know what? I’m gonna do it different. I’m gonna make it more like a novel-style, coming-of-age book that ends in the year 1993… So there might be a part two — or maybe not. We’ll see. So it keeps it really short.”
Petrozza noted that this era aligns with what many fans consider the quintessential era of the genre. “Most people, when they talk about metal, they wanna know about the ’80s, because, for some people, that’s the golden days of metal. So we kept it in the ’80s. We only went to the beginning of the ’90s to make it more exciting, make it more of a unique autobiography.”
As an avid reader of musician biographies himself, Petrozza was keen to avoid the structural pitfalls that plague the genre. He argued that the life of a touring musician, while exciting to live, can become monotonous on the page once the initial rise to fame is established.
“No disrespect, but sometimes when you read autobiographies by other artists, and I’m a big sucker for autobiographies — I read a lot of those — sometimes it gets a little boring,” he admitted. “There’s only so much that happens in the life of a musician. You go into a studio, you go on a tour, and if you do it like for, like, 40 years of career, then it’s, like, okay, okay, more of the same. So I wanted to keep it short and sweet.”
The autobiography isn’t the only retrospective project Kreator has launched recently. The band’s official documentary, “Hate & Hope,” premiered theatrically in September after debuting at the Munich International Film Festival. Directed by Cordula Kablitz-Post, the 110-minute film offers a contemporary look at the band’s inner workings, contrasting the historical focus of the book.
“It kind of gives you like a little bit of an insight, behind-the-scenes kind of look — you can sneak and see how we work in the studio, how we write songs and life on the road,” Petrozza said of the film. “The director came to us, and she followed us around the world, really. She shot footage in Los Angeles. She followed the band to India and Japan… It’s very entertaining. You watch the movie and you’re not bored. And to me, that’s always the most important thing… that people, when they watch the movie, they go, like, ‘Wow, now I wanna go see the band live.'”
While the book looks to the past, Kreator is charging full steam into the future. The band is set to release their sixteenth studio album, Krushers Of The World, on January 16, 2026, via Nuclear Blast Records. The album sees the band reuniting with producer Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden—the same team behind the acclaimed Phantom Antichrist and Gods Of Violence. The cover art was crafted by the renowned Zbigniew Bielak.
