Kreator

Arguably the most influential and successful European thrash metal band despite some competition from outfits such as Sodom, Destruction, and Tankard, Germany's Kreator are by far the most enduring. Like many of their European speed metal brethren, Kreator fused the big four's -- Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Slayer -- thrash innovations with Venom's proto-black metal imagery, sparked it with Motörhead's terminal velocity, and capped it off with the nihilistic outlook typical of heavy metal since the seminal days of Black Sabbath. Kreator's career also mirrored speed metal...