The leader of the famous thrash metal band Kreator Miland (Millet) Petrozza was born in 1967. His parents emigrated from Italy to Germany before his birth. Music attracted the boy from early childhood, and therefore the career began early and successfully. Already in 1982, Mille Petrozza, the guitarist of the school ensemble, founded Tormentor - a group that was later renamed, in which he is now a rhythm and solo guitarist, and also sings.
New genre
This group stood at the very origins of the birth of a new direction in metal, from which all its extreme varieties came from. Mille Petrozza made a huge contribution to the development of style. Thrash metal itself is rigidity itself, aggression itself, rushing at tremendous speed, this is an abundance of riffs in the low range, these are high-tech, like shredded rhythmic figures at high frequencies, this is a wild bass tremolo and almost always dissonant vocals.
However, all this together sounds surprisingly harmonious and thoughtful, albeit expressively and forcefully, but these compositions cannot be denied musicality. Listening to what comes out of the strings of Mille Petrozza, it can be noted that the construction is, of course, complex, with elements of blues and jazz, with many chromatisms, a change in harmony and size. Frets are most often used also not too run-in: Lokri and pentatonic. The texts are densely saturated with criticism and the designation of all kinds of social injustices. Perception is not Vivaldi, of course, but nonetheless - real music.
Kreator
A little bit about the name of the group that quickly became a cult. Kreator is a multi-valued word. If from Latin - you can translate as a creator, creator, if from ancient German - this is the name of one of the most terrible demons. And modern German, changing one letter, interprets this word as "creature" (Kreatur). And just now no one will remember, since the name was invented in 1982, what exactly did Mille Petrozza mean.
Religion and thrash metal are two things that are almost incompatible, and the leader of the group believes that, in principle, people don’t need it. However, in the lyrics sometimes religiosity slips. True, the sound design of this topic is such that the Satanists are more likely to be remembered. Kreator quickly gained popularity outside Essen, where this group was born, and then the whole world recognized them.
Start
So, in 1982, in the city of Essen, West Germany, fifteen to sixteen-year-old school friends met: drummer Jürgen Reil, bassist Roberto Fioretti and guitarist Mille Petrozza. There is no photo of that time in the open space of the Internet, but even after five or six years they look, although unusually serious, but still very young. The boys decided to meet more often and play their favorite music, it was basically the repertoire of Venom.
However, after a while this did not seem enough to them, and thoughts appeared about creating a small, but own group. For a whole year they tried to find like-minded people and came up with a name. In 1983, the three of them played music. Ryle also had to charge the vocals. And the name was chosen - Tormentor, and under this name the group released as many as two demos - the first in 1983 (Blitzkrieg), and the second in 1984 (End Of The World). “End of the World” became interested in Noise recording studio from West Berlin, and therefore already in 1985 an agreement was concluded.
First album
Only one problem has arisen: the name of the group, which was thought up for the whole year, was rejected due to the fact that several groups with that name have already performed in the country, and even one successfully. Then I remembered the name of the ancient German demon - Kreator, and since then, for more than two decades now, if I may say so, his face adorns all the many albums. And the first was called "Endless Pain" and it was recorded literally for ten days.
Five songs were sung by Mille Petrozza, whose growth, as a vocalist, increased literally before our eyes, and the other five were sung by a drummer. The album instantly became popular and is still widely known as one of the first purely thrash, and the composition of its number, Flag of Hate, became the band's first hit. Just a couple of months later, a new West German band appeared on the air, became famous and gained their fans, many of whom are still fans.
First glory
The year 1986 paved the way for fame along with the creation of a second album under the beautiful title "The Pleasure to Kill." Here, Mille Petrozza, whose personal life was completely tied to music, set a real milestone in the history of thrash metal genre. The album was lucky with the producer. It was a long time ago the famous Harris Jones, which led to fame for such groups as Tankard, Deathrow, Sodom, Voivod, Helloween and many others.
The album showed that the professional level of musicians has become much higher. especially in technical terms. Petrozza Millet became a real idol of the audience, since no one has demonstrated such really heavy and speedy music - the pace just went through the roof, affecting in a serious way all future death metal bands. And the Kreator group itself was recognized as the most promising among the European metal style.
Tour
Musicians performed live before the audience only five times, of which one or two could be counted as full-fledged performances, and after the release of Pleasure to Kill, the group went on a tour in Germany for the first time, then in England. For this, the musicians needed to at least slightly increase the composition. Michael Wolf (“Sodom”) played a little with them, then guitarist Jörg Trebiatowski.
In 1987, Kreator created a new album - “A Nightmare Fact”, one of the songs of which became another hit - Behind The Mirror. Then the first clip was shot (composition Toxic Trace), and work began with MTV. Album sales with this step increased many times over. Tours began in the USA and Canada. For a group of this profile, it was a victory - the second album sold one hundred thousand copies. Reviews on the world music press were also excellent. The popularity in Germany and England was especially great - the name Petrozza Millet already sounded loud among fans of thrash metal.
World fame
I must say that, despite the very defiant musical style, young musicians from the very beginning in the backstage life behaved extremely wisely and far-sighted. No one from the public can still say for sure that Mille Petrozza got married or divorced, that he is a lover of blondes or brunettes. Personal life was hidden deeply and firmly. And in 1989, the third album “Extreme Aggression” was released, which the group recorded at a studio in Los Angeles with the producer of the well-known Randy Burns.
It was a turning point that elevated this team to the pinnacle of world fame. The clip shot on the ruins of the Acropolis in Greece (Betrayer composition) is known even to people who listen exclusively to Vivaldi, because it sounded very long and desirable for the public on MTV. Even if some reproaches were heard that “Creator” played here too cleanly, the group’s reputation was unshakable on top of Olympus. Nevertheless, after the next European tour, Tritz left the group, in his place stood the musician from Sodom Frank Godzhik (Blackfire). And the next tour in the USA began.
Loyalty to style or experimentation
In 1990, the album “Coma Souls” was released, and it became clear that he didn’t miss the mark with the new guitarist Mille Petrozza: his solos were harmonious and had excellent technique, very organically, although in contrast, they fit into the overall musical fabric of the joint compositions. The solos of Millet himself continued to be brutal to the highest degree, and in general “Creator” remained absolutely faithful to the style and continued to lead thrash metal forward.
The beginning of the nineties is a time of changes in the world, as if the world itself is tired of it. I wanted to change everything! Even in metal (and including trash) experiments with sound began. In 1992, "Creator" released the sixth album under the name, which no one expected - "Update." For the first time, compositions used keyboards and clean vocals. Mille Petrozza has changed the style of singing! In addition, accompanied by clearly heard elements from a neighboring style - industrial. Many fans spat and predicted that the next album "Creator" will be created in the wake of Vivaldi.
And yet
There was a lot of truth here: all Millet’s solos were transformed, they ceased to be chaotic, melodies sparkled in them every now and then! However, to critics in spite, this album is still considered the best among the created by the group, and in addition, the circle of fans of Mille Petrozza has expanded significantly. Listening to Renewal is literally in one go, and there are no pauses between tracks. All this was not just conceptually done, it was clearly a great inspiration.
A clip was made on the main composition in one of the deserts of Israel, and a large instrumental fragment demonstrating the borrowing of the industrial (Realitatskontrolle) reminded Orwell of "1984" in everything. In addition, the composition of the Karmic Wheel captures the moment of suicide live politician from the United States Robert Dwyer. In a word, the album turned out to be exceptionally interesting, absolutely unlike the previous ones, however, the thrash metal style remained unshakable, except that it got some variety.
World tour
After the release, a world tour followed, including to Russia, where they had to prove that they had nothing to do with Nazism (just the patron of their concert was the notorious Sergei Troitsky - “Spider”, known as a follower of this philosophical direction, which is absolutely unacceptable in our country). Here it is necessary to clarify that the musical direction is in no way connected with the reality in which the members of the "Creator" group live. The style that explicitly preaches violence is somehow combined with the fact that, in the strictest form, the vegan observing the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" is just Mille Petrozza.
And Tilo Wolf, his many-year-old bosom Goth friend from the Lacrimosa group, is for some reason a sincerely religious person who constantly visits the temple. Recall that the Goths are Satanism and vampires. Somehow it all fits together. By the way, Tilo is also a person who is completely closed to the public. Some believe that for him the group created by Millet Petrozza is a family. Others are confident that for several years Tilo Wolf with his wife, whom no one has seen, is secretly raising a joint daughter somewhere in the mountains of Switzerland. Which of the gossipers is closer to the truth - God knows. However, their joint musical project with Millet was excellent, but more on that below.
Parting
Back to the tour. Here, the group "Creator" was expecting a significant loss, almost irreparable. The band was forced to leave the bassist, founder of the group Rob Fioretti. He wanted to give more time to his family. Within two years, two bass players have changed, the second - Christian Gisler - came up, still together. Almost at the same time - in the same year - the drummer, who also stood at the origins of the creation of the group, also left the band - Jürgen Reil.
Millet remained one of the young trinity that she had met in Essen, having just graduated from school. And this parting was not the last. In 1994, the Noise label stopped working with the band for many years as it switched to GUN Records. And it’s not at all strange that the next album by Millet Petrozza called “Cause of Conflict” (1995). He was gorgeous. Two compositions were accompanied by clips. Millet tried to return to his former style, but did not find a direct road. This album was again filled with experiments, and in style was close to the techno genre. The new drummer was excellent, all the musicians shone with the technique of the game. But the compositional changes continued for a very long time.
Outcast and others
In 1997, experiments continued. The new Outcast album ("Outcast") showed the use of not only keyboards, but also electronics, the music became less heavy and more streamlined. But, oddly enough, it added a gloomy character. It was still trash, but already "atmospheric." And a year later, Millet began to take vocal lessons from the famous rock singer Gudrun Laos. New albums, festivals, tours with huge audiences followed. Music was written much more slowly and carefully.
Mille Petrozza solved organizational problems again and again, including with sound recording. The band had to leave GUN Records in 1999 and switch to the Drakkar records label. The album "Inner Spirit" was released in a new format. From trash, the group withdrew almost completely. Amazing melody, ease were created with the help of a new - "clean" - Millet's vocals, as well as keyboards and electronics. Fans were divided in opinions and were at different poles. Some considered this album the best, others - a failure. And “to blame” was Tilo Wolf, who performed the title track along with Millet. Gothic metal has left an indelible imprint on the sound of the entire album, which has become extremely popular.
Glory is unshakable
The two thousandth years did not stop the “staff turnover” in the group, but the “curved” road of experiments nevertheless returned “Creator” to its former, classic thrash sound. This marked the album "Violent Revolution." And in 2004, an unheard-of happened: Mille Petrozza took part in a children's television show dedicated to rock music.
Moved by this meeting, Millet shared his impressions in numerous interviews for a long time. In 2005, the theme of the compositions of the new album "Enemy of God" was international terrorism, and Millet considered religion to be the cause of the bloodshed. The incompatible was combined: the group, with a choice of style, promised the public trash (robbery, violence), came up with anti-war themes.
