10 Greatest Thrash Metal Albums Of All Time

10. Kreator: Pleasure To Kill (1986)

German thrash metal was a world entirely its own, separate from the American scene and dominated by 3 bands: Destruction, Sodom and Kreator. Kicking things into high gear with the 1985 release of Endless Pain, Kreator outdid themselves with the explosively brutal Pleasure to Kill 1 year later.

The Essen quartet provide a feral, ferocious frenzy of headbanging rage with charmingly titled tracks such as Ripping Corpse, Riot of Violence and the titular Pleasure to Kill. Frontman Mille Petrozza’s vocals provide a bloodthirsty series of raspy lyrics to bounce off the furious riffs and pounding drum beats.

Inspired musically by the likes of Possessed and Slayer, Kreator were obsessed with creating the angriest, most apocalyptic music the world had ever heard. Lyrical inspiration came from Faces of Death, a 1978 film studying various ways of dying across the planet. Each and every song, in turn, depicts a different (but all too grisly) way to kick the bucket. A smash hit in the German metal scene, it solidified Kreator as pioneers of the international thrash genre for many years to come.