1985-1992 Past Life Trauma

Past Life Trauma was my first Kreator album, after having heard a few mp3's a few months before I bought said album. As a compilation, it's very well rounded, with a great mix of early pseudo-death metal era, and plenty of mid era riff madness Kreator. I happen to prefer the mid era stuff (Terrible Certainty-Coma of Souls) because I love the songwriting, even if the performance isn't quite as furious as Pleasure to Kill. That having been said, this cd gave me a good feel for what stuff I loved (Extreme Aggressions, People of the Lie, etc.) and that which I liked, but felt was unremarkalbe or underdeveloped (Under the Guillotine, Flag of Hate). Kreator has come to be one of my favorite thrash bands, and this nice best of was an excellent introduction for me into the world of German thrash.

Highly reccomended to any metal fan not familiar with Kreator. Otherwise, I don't really see the point of "best of" albums and tend to avoid them unless they are my first purchase of a band's material.

The "rare" tracks (Winter Martyrium-live, After the Attack, Trauma, Europe after the Rain-live) are all very cool, and I especially like after the attack - cool lyrics about a post nuclear world. Europe after the Rain has a long speech in the beginning which is apparently an anti-facist statement, altough I don't speak German. Still, the song is good stuff, as is Winter Martyrium.
2 horns out of 2 \m/