KREATOR's MILLE PETROZZA On Songwriting Process: 'I Still Try To Write The Best Song That I've Ever Written'

In a new interview with Sense Music Media, KREATOR frontman Mille Petrozza confirmed that he and his bandmates have commenced work on material for the follow-up to 2022's "Hate Über Alles" album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's gonna take a while. I've been in the studio for the last couple of days, and it's always like pulling teeth almost. You're, like, 'Ah, fuck, man. I have cool riffs, but it's not a song yet.' And then you're, like, almost like being pregnant with the songs. You're, like, 'Wow, fuck. This is great' or 'this sucks' or 'this is amazing' or 'I can't listen to this. It's not there yet.' You go to sleep with it and the next morning you wake up and you're still thinking about the song. And it's a little bit of a weird state of mind that I'm in while I'm songwriting, because I'm always trying to make the songs the most energetic and the best… I still try to write the best song that I've ever written. I still have that mindset of, like, 'It's not over yet. I need to still write a song that's fucking amazing.' So every song that I write, I have this approach, and it can be a little exhausting."

Petrozza went on a song is done when there is nothing left to add and nothing left to edit out — and the lyrics 100 percent express the purpose of the track.

"It's nothing about the technique. It's not about the quality. It's a feeling," he explained. "It's, like, you listen to something or you take a look at your painting and you feel it's not quite there yet. And it's nothing that you can explain on a rational level. It's an emotion, and if you don't feel it, it's not right."

Last month, Mille was asked by Jaimunji of Australia's Metal Roos why he thinks KREATOR's most recent albums sound so fresh, even though it's been nearly four decades since the release of the band's debut LP. He responded: "We take our time. [2017's] 'Gods Of Violence' came out, it was also five years [since 2012's 'Phantom Antichrist'], even though the album was ready a year earlier. So, we don't put out something if we don't — we keep our mouths shut if we don't have anything to say. Before we're not confident that there's a bunch of songs that I've written where I go, like, 'I can't wait till people hear these songs,' I won't release an album."

He continued: "I'm writing again already and I have a couple of, a bunch of new songs for the next album that will come out in 2025 or something. But, to me, it's always important to — is there riffs that feel fresh? Is there lyrical themes that I haven't talked about or not in the way that I'm doing them on — you know, there's a new angle to it, a new something. So to me, that's essential. And maybe that's why we still sound fresh because we don't put out albums [that often]. Some of our fellow metal bands, friends, they sometimes seem to put out albums almost every other year, which is cool, if it works for them. For us, it doesn't work."

This past May, KREATOR released a music video for the song "Conquer And Destroy" from "Hate Über Alles". The performance footage was filmed on March 4, 2023 in front of 6,000 of KREATOR's mighty hordes in their spiritual home of Essen.

KREATOR's fifteenth studio album, "Hate Über Alles" was released in June 2022. The follow-up to "Gods Of Violence" was recorded at Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin, Germany. Helming the sessions was Arthur Rizk, who has previously worked with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, CODE ORANGE, POWER TRIP and SOULFLY, among others.

The "Hate Über Alles" cover artwork was created by Eliran Kantor, who has previously worked with HATEBREED, SOULFLY, TESTAMENT, ICED EARTH and SODOM, among others.

"Hate Über Alles" marks KREATOR's first album with bassist Frédéric Leclercq, who joined the group in 2019.

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.

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.