German thrash metal veterans KREATOR have entered Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin, Germany to begin recording their new album for a tentative early 2022 release. Helming the sessions is Arthur Rizk, who has previously worked with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, CODE ORANGE, POWER TRIP and SOULFLY, among others.

On Monday (September 20), KREATOR frontman Mille Petrozza shared a photo of drummer Jürgen “Ventor” Reil laying down tracks for the new disc, and he included the following message: “More drum recordings today at @hansastudios. Ventor has put down his best performance ever on tape ( Yes: Tape!) Best Studio on Earth!”

Earlier this year, Mille revealed to the official podcast of Italy’s Metalitalia.com that KREATOR would wait until the coronavirus pandemic has subsided before releasing an album.

“Last year, in August, we felt that we were done writing, and we were very enthusiastic about, like, ‘Okay, this is almost an album. We have 12 songs. And we take the 10 best, or whatever we come up with.’ And we already planned on going into the studio in February,” he said. “Now it’s February, and the world is still kind of fucked with the COVID. So we have to wait and be patient… I think going on a tour, the artwork, everything has to connect. So we’ll wait until that’s possible again, and then we’ll put out the album.”

On the topic of the musical direction of the follow-up to 2017’s “Gods Of Violence” album, Mille said: “It’s definitely different. It’s hard for me to describe, but I think it’s definitely more thrash again. It has a lot of melody, and it has a lot of traditional parts, and it has a lot of ingredients of the last four or five albums. But it also has some very old-school moments. I think it’s definitely the next step.”

KREATOR‘s next album will mark the band’s first with bassist Frédéric Leclercq, who joined the group in 2019.

In September 2020, KREATOR guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö described the sessions for the band’s new album to Italy’s Poisoned Rock as “a lot of fun,” adding that the “mood” in the band “is great. And the general vibe and the atmosphere is very good,” he said. “These are creative times for KREATOR at the moment.”

In March 2020, KREATOR surprise-released a new single, “666 – World Divided”. The song was produced by Andy Sneap and Markus Ganter and was recorded at Hansa Tonstudios.

The music video for “666 – World Divided” was created under the direction of Jörn Heitmann, who was responsible for the music videos for “Radio” and “Ausländer” by RAMMSTEIN.

KREATOR played its first show with Leclercq in October 2019 in Santiago, Chile.

Before joining KREATOR, Leclercq rose to fame with U.K.-based extreme power metallers DRAGONFORCE for whom he handled bass duties from 2005 until August 2019.

KREATOR‘s previously announced “State Of Unrest” European tour with LAMB OF GOD has been rescheduled for November/December 2021 in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

KREATOR released a new live set, “London Apocalypticon – Live At The Roundhouse”, in February 2020 via Nuclear Blast. The effort was professionally filmed and recorded on December 16, 2018 at the Roundhouse in London, England.