Sami Yli-Sirniö questions whether music can change the world as it did in the ’60s, while Frédéric Leclercq argues for escapism.
Kreator have spent four decades writing about war, corruption and human cruelty. Asked whether music can actually bring people together, two of them gave notably different answers.
Guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö and bassist Frédéric Leclercq were put the question by Kati Rausch of “Music Interview Corner“, who pointed out that the band’s lyrics tend to deal with division rather than unity.
Yli-Sirniö was hopeful but unconvinced.
“I really hope it can. Sometimes I feel that can you make such a big difference with music in today’s world as people did, like, for example, in the ’60s and the ’70s? Maybe not quite as much, but I still… It’s possible to make a difference. Yeah. I hope so. I hope so. It would be hard to say,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
Leclercq took a different line, arguing that escapism is a worthwhile end in itself and that the case for keeping politics out of music is as defensible as the case for putting it in.
He added: “And if not, at least give people escapism. That’s something that you, at least, should be able to go everywhere and just give people escapism and just entertain them. Which is why you were saying before just, like, one can debate if politics should be part of the music sometimes or to have clear positions because that’s also like a platform. You’ve got a voice, and I think that’s nice if you can express yourself. But at the same time, you’ve got both… Both arguments are valid. I know Alice Cooper, for example, is always, like, ‘[It’s just] entertainment, and that’s what we’re doing.’ That’s what I personally wanna do, is just to give people escapism from the reality we live in.”
The exchange is a slightly awkward fit for a band whose frontman Mille Petrozza has built a catalogue on political subject matter, though neither man argued that Kreator should change course.
Their sixteenth album, Krushers Of The World, arrived on January 16 through Nuclear Blast Records. It runs ten tracks across 44 minutes and was recorded at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden with Jens Bogren, who also produced Phantom Antichrist in 2012 and Gods Of Violence in 2017. Zbigniew Bielak, best known for his work with Ghost, supplied the cover art.
Five singles came out of it: “Seven Serpents“, “Tränenpalast“, “Satanic Anarchy“, the title track and “Loyal To The Grave“. “Tränenpalast” features Britta Görtz of Hiraes, who works as an extreme metal vocal coach, and draws on Petrozza‘s interest in horror cinema as a nod to Dario Argento‘s “Suspiria“.
Kreator took the record across 20 countries in the spring alongside Carcass, Exodus and Nails, opening on March 20 at the MEO Arena in Lisbon and finishing on April 25 in Copenhagen, with stops in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Paris, Milan, Berlin and Stockholm. An American headline run followed in May, starting on May 7 in Fort Lauderdale and ending on May 23 in Baltimore, taking in Welcome To Rockville, Sonic Temple and Maryland Deathfest.
The album followed two other releases documenting the band’s history. The 110-minute documentary “Hate & Hope“, directed by Cordula Kablitz-Post, screened at the 42nd Munich International Film Festival in July 2025 before a theatrical run that September. Petrozza‘s German-language autobiography, “Your Heaven, My Hell — Mein Leben, Heavy Metal Und Wie Das Alles Passieren Konnte“, written with journalist Torsten Groß, was published by Ullstein Verlag in August 2025.
Kreator formed in Essen in 1982, having started out under the names Tyrant and Tormentor, and are counted alongside Destruction, Sodom and Tankard as one of German thrash’s founding acts. Leclercq joined in 2019 after leaving DragonForce, with 2022’s Hate Über Alles his first album in the band, and completes the current lineup with Petrozza, Yli-Sirniö and drummer Jürgen “Ventor” Reil.
