KREATOR – Hate & Hope

To their fans worldwide, they are gods, but their music seems possessed by the devil—more aggressive, faster, and more uncompromising than others. The German band KREATOR has long since reached the pinnacle of the thrash metal scene. The film KREATOR – HATE & HOPE tells the forty-year history of the celebrated metal band for the first time, from their founding as a school band in 1982 in the Ruhr area to the grand international stages of their current world tour. Then as now, they stand against the hatred and the abysses of our society. Shrill tones, virtuosic guitar riffs, and energetic drumbeats process the turmoil in our civilization with tremendous willpower and creativity. Between Hannah Arendt quotes and headless corpses, emerges a well-crafted poetry of chaos full of symbols of horror – a musical Molotov cocktail against evil with a cathartic effect.

For her new documentary, director Cordula Kablitz-Post (“Die Toten Hosen – You only live once”) goes on tour with the legendary thrash metal band from the “Ruhrpott” for a year: Wacken Open Air, Tokyo, Osaka, Bangalore, Los Angeles and finally “Klash of the Ruhrpott” in Gelsenkirchen, where Germany’s metal greats gather. With private archive recordings and exciting interviews (Scott Ian / Anthrax, Chuck Billy / Testament, Bela B. / Die Ärzte, guitarist Phil Demmel / formerly Machine Head, Maik Weichert / Heaven Shall Burn, Nergal / Behemoth, Lars Eidinger, Andy Sneap) they embark on a very honest and humorous journey into the wildly beating heart of German music history.