Formed in Essen, Germany in 1982, Kreator are arguably the most influential and successful European thrash metal band ever, like many of their European speed metal brethren, Kreator fused Metallica's thrash innovations with Venom's proto-black metal imagery.Kreator has been referred to as one of the "Big 4" of Teutonic thrash metal, and they are often credited with helping pioneer death metal and black metal by containing several elements of what was to become those genres. The band 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.Kreator's style has changed several times over the years, from a Venom-inspired speed metal sound, later moving in to thrash metal, and including a period of transitioning from thrash to industrial metal and gothic metal throughout the 1990s. In the early 2000s, Kreator returned to their classic thrash sound, which has continued to the present.Endless Pain was released in October 1985 by Noise Records. It was a savage debut; its crude thrashing quickly had the underground metal world abuzz with excitement. This album has been known to be viewed as a pivotal album to black metal bands that enjoy thrash metal elements, ultimately creating a thrash-influenced black metal sound.This version also contains the band’s original demos when they were still known as Tormentor, one fittingly named Blitzkrieg (1983), and the other End of the World (1984). These fell into the hands of thousands of heavy metal fans engaging in the era's bustling underground tape-trading network.
