10 Best Thrash Metal Bands Outside Of The Big 4
3. Kreator
Alongside Destruction, Tankard, and the aforementioned Sodom, Kreator are the final piece of the German thrash Big Four puzzle.
Hailing from Essen, the Ruhr's second city after Dortmund and the country's ninth-largest in total, Kreator were instrumental in establishing thrash and death metal as viable genres in the early 1980s.
They were signed to Epic Records in 1988, a rarity for a European band at the time, and toured the US in support of bands like Voivod, Overkill, and Megadeth.
Unlike their fellow list-mates, Kreator didn't achieve their greatest commercial success until the 21st Century, as their initial albums were popular on the underground circuit, but nowhere else. Their first top 20 album in Germany wasn't until 2009 (which was also the first time they charted in the US), and they wouldn't top the charts in their homeland until 2017!
Clearly Germany wasn't ready for an album called Gods of Violence before then.
Living proof that you should never give up on your dreams, Kreator are now finally getting the flowers they deserve after decades of doing important work to help other thrash bands prosper.