KREATOR spend a lot of lyrical energy on division, cruelty and humanity at its lowest. So when Kati Rausch of Music Interview Corner asked guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö and bassist Frédéric Leclercq whether music can actually bring people together, the question had some weight behind it. Neither man reached for the easy answer.
Yli-Sirniö wanted to believe it, and said so with visible hesitation. "I really hope it can. Sometimes I feel that can you make such a big difference with music in today's world as people did, like, for example, in the '60s and the '70s? Maybe not quite as much, but I still... It's possible to make a difference. Yeah. I hope so. I hope so. It would be hard to say."
Leclercq took a different route, and set the bar somewhere more achievable. "And if not, at least give people escapism. That's something that you, at least, should be able to go everywhere and just give people escapism and just entertain them."
He then folded that into the older argument about whether metal should carry politics at all — a question KREATOR have answered emphatically in one direction for four decades. "One can debate if politics should be part of the music sometimes or to have clear positions because that's also like a platform. You've got a voice, and I think that's nice if you can express yourself. But at the same time, you've got both… Both arguments are valid. I know Alice Cooper, for example, is always, like, '[It's just] entertainment, and that's what we're doing.' That's what I personally wanna do, is just to give people escapism from the reality we live in."
The exchange is a small window into a band that has never been shy about where it stands. KREATOR's sixteenth studio album, "Krushers Of The World", arrived on January 16, 2026 via Nuclear Blast Records, recorded at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden with Jens Bogren — who also handled "Phantom Antichrist" (2012) and "Gods Of Violence" (2017). The cover art came from Zbigniew Bielak, the Polish artist behind much of GHOST's visual identity. Singles included "Seven Serpents", "Tränenpalast" — featuring guest vocals from Britta Görtz of HIRAES — and "Satanic Anarchy".
The band toured it hard. A European run across 20 countries with CARCASS, EXODUS and NAILS opened on March 20 in Lisbon and closed April 25 in Copenhagen, taking in London, Manchester, Glasgow, Paris, Milan, Berlin and Stockholm. A U.S. headline tour followed in May, with stops at Welcome To Rockville, Sonic Temple and Maryland Deathfest.
There has been plenty outside the music too: the official documentary "Hate & Hope", directed by Cordula Kablitz-Post, premiered at the Munich International Film Festival in July 2025 and reached cinemas that September, while Mille Petrozza's German-language autobiography was published by Ullstein Verlag in August 2025.
Source: blabbermouth.net