KREATOR's MILLE PETROZZA: 'I Don't Think I'm Gonna Stop Doing This Until The Day I Die'

In a new interview with Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show, KREATOR frontman Mille Petrozza was asked how he keeps the songwriting process challenging after making sixteen studio albums with the band, including KREATOR's latest, "Krushers Of The World", which came out in January. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Keeping it fresh is the key. Otherwise it becomes boring and it becomes a routine, and that's something that we try to avoid. It's kind of hard, I know, but I think what really helps is taking time and wait[ing] until you are inspired. Rather than putting out albums every two years, we put out albums every four to five years. So that means after two years of touring, I will have inspiration and there will be some new themes that I can think of, writing lyrics, and new themes for songs and new ideas and new riffs and new music. And I just wait for the right moment to come. And hopefully we are keeping it fresh. It's hard for me to judge because I'm too involved in the music, but I think we're doing our best to not repeat ourselves. Even though we found our style, we try to keep it somehow exciting."

Asked if the joy he gets out of the creative process has evolved for him in the four decades since he started KREATOR, Mille said: "It became better and better over the years because I kind of know my craft a little better, like the technical side of things, which is in my DNA now. I've been doing this since my teenage years. I'm in my fifties now, so I've been doing this for a long time. So the craft is there. The technical skills, all that is there. It's like you're painting a picture — you're painting a nice artwork and you know all the colors, how they would look at the end of the day and what you wanna express. So it's the same with the music."

He continued: "The most important thing is that the band enjoys what we do first. And if we get something out of this and we do demos and we feel the excitement of a new thing that wasn't there before, and we create something new, that's the best thing in the world. And it's something that I have done all my life. And I don't think I'm gonna stop doing this until the day I die, really. I mean, it's just what I do. And it's fun. It's more exciting than in the early days, because in the early days, we were still trying to figure it out. It was more of a challenge to kind of get the things that we had in our mind on tape, playing-wise, technically. Nowadays the technique is there. Now we have to kind of express the emotion and the feeling, which is a different level of excitement."

"Krushers Of The World" was recorded at Fascination Street Studios in Örebro, Sweden with producer Jens Bogren. Bogren previously helmed KREATOR's "Phantom Antichrist" (2012) and "Gods Of Violence" (2017) LPs. The "Krushers Of The World" cover artwork was created by Polish genius Zbigniew Bielak (GHOST).

KREATOR will embark on a U.S. tour this spring. The band, which last conquered American audiences and venues in 2024, will return for a headline tour next month, with stops at key festivals, including Welcome To Rockville, Sonic Temple and Maryland Deathfest. The tour kicks off on May 7 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and runs through May 23 in Huntington, New York.

The official KREATOR documentary, "Hate & Hope", was shown in July 2025 at the 42nd Munich International Film Festival and received a theatrical premiere in September 2025. The 110-minute film was directed by Cordula Kablitz-Post.

Mille's official German-language autobiography, which he wrote with journalist, author and presenter Torsten Groß, "Your Heaven, My Hell - Mein Leben, Heavy Metal Und Wie Das Alles Passieren Konnte", was published in August 2025 via Ullstein Verlag.

Photo credit: Robert Eikelpoth