Extreme Aggression is the fourth studio album by German thrash metal band Kreator released in 1989. While the band had already gained a sizeable following in the US due to their 1988 tour with the crossover thrash band D.R.I., this album introduced many American fans to Kreator, primarily through heavy rotation of the "Betrayer" music video on MTV's Headbangers Ball, which was partly shot at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. The beginning of the song "Love Us or Hate Us" was used in an early 1990s promo ad by the Los Angeles radio station KNAC. This was their first issued in the US by Epic Records. The album was also available on picture disc vinyl.
The album's original artwork was that of a man standing in front of a bathroom mirror looking at the reflection of his face falling off, exposing Kreator's mascot demon underneath. However, it was quickly replaced with a new artwork, depicting an image of the band in front of an orange background.
Coinciding with the 2017 remastered issue, Extreme Aggression charted for the first time 28 years after its release, and peaked at number 90 on the German charts. The remastered edition of the band's 1986 album Pleasure to Kill charted on the same day.Extreme Aggression is the fourth studio album by German thrash metal band Kreator released in 1989. While the band had already gained a sizeable following in the US due to their 1988 tour with the crossover thrash band D.R.I., this album introduced many American fans to Kreator, primarily through heavy rotation of the "Betrayer" music video on MTV's Headbangers Ball, which was partly shot at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. The beginning of the song "Love Us or Hate Us" was used in an early 1990s promo ad by the Los Angeles radio station KNAC. This was their first issued in the US by Epic Records. The album was also available on picture disc vinyl.
The album's original artwork was that of a man standing in front of a bathroom mirror looking at the reflection of his face falling off, exposing Kreator's mascot demon underneath. However, it was quickly replaced with a new artwork, depicting an image of the band in front of an orange background.
Coinciding with the 2017 remastered issue, Extreme Aggression charted for the first time 28 years after its release, and peaked at number 90 on the German charts. The remastered edition of the band's 1986 album Pleasure to Kill charted on the same day.false2025-11-08 05:59:59Extreme Aggression19891989-06-191989-06-1938Heavy MetalMetalRockThrash Metal1132102123328d60b2747-ff16-46ce-a4bb-3f35daf76b0539822e8d-f24e-4f07-b51b-28b22e59fbdb6b51dbf6-ef23-394e-85e2-5d3beabd23c0/media/data/media5/Music/Kreator/Extreme Aggression/folder.jpgKreatorKreatorKreator is a German thrash metal band from Essen, formed in 1982. Their current lineup consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Miland "Mille" Petrozza, drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil, lead guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö, and bassist Frédéric Leclercq. The band's lineup has changed multiple times throughout its 42-year career, most noticeably with their bassists and lead guitarists. Petrozza and Reil are the only two original members left in Kreator, although the latter took a break from the band from 1994 to 1996. Yli-Sirniö has been the lead guitarist of Kreator since 2001, while Leclercq joined in 2019 as the replacement of Christian "Speesy" Giesler, who had been a member of the band since 1994.
Kreator has released fifteen studio albums, two EPs, two live albums and three compilation albums. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international thrash metal community, with their second studio album Pleasure to Kill (1986) regarded as an influential album of the genre. Many of their subsequent albums — including Terrible Certainty (1987), Extreme Aggression (1989) and Coma of Souls (1990) — were also highly acclaimed. Despite being an influential band, as well as one of the first European thrash metal acts to sign to a major label (signing to Epic Records in 1988), Kreator would not achieve mainstream popularity until later albums, including their thirteenth studio album Phantom Antichrist (2012) and its follow-up Gods of Violence (2017), both of which charted highly in many countries, with the latter reaching number one on the German charts. Their latest studio album, Hate Über Alles, was released on 10 June 2022, and the band is currently working on new material for their next album.
Kreator has achieved worldwide sales of over two million units for combined sales of all their albums, making them one of the best-selling German thrash metal bands of all time. Along with Destruction, Sodom and Tankard, they are credited as one of the "Big Four" of Teutonic thrash metal, responsible for developing and popularizing the German thrash metal scene as well as pioneering the then-emerging death metal and black metal genres during the mid-1980s.