The band was called Tormentor in the old days (1982-1984). Both demos were released under that name. The first lineup was Mille, Rob, and Ventor. A few guitarists were tried before Jörg Tritze joined after the "Flag of Hate" EP. Michael Wulf was in the band for a few days, and didn't play on "Pleasure to Kill", despite his getting credit. He died in a motorcycle accident in 1993.

With Tritze the band started their first tour ever (before the release of Pleasure to Kill they had only played 5 gigs total). In 1989 German director Thomas Schadt made a documentary about Kreator (focusing on the social aspect of Heavy Metal in the Ruhr area) titled "Thrash Altenessen" (named after the band's hometown, a suburb of Essen). Tritze left Kreator after Extreme Aggression, which was (as was the follow-up Coma of Souls) recorded in Los Angeles with producer Randy Burns (Also Megadeth among others). Tritze was replaced by a former Sodom guitarist Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik who would stay in the band until 1996.

After the release of Renewal (1992), founding member Rob decided to leave the band as he wanted to spend more time with his family. He was replaced by Andreas Herz, who never played on any official releases, as the band released nothing between 1992 and 1995. The reason was a long fight between the band and their label Noise Records because Kreator wanted to get out of their contract. This also contributed to Ventor's decision to leave Kreator, together with personal problems he had at the time.

When they finally signed a new deal with GUN in 1995, Herz had already been replaced by Christian Giesler. Also the band had a new drummer Joe Cangelosi, who was a friend of Frank Gosdzik. Cangelosi decided to leave after only one album, and Gosdzik also departed at this time. Ventor returned to the band to replace him and Frank Gosdzik was replaced with Tommy Vetterli (Coroner). When he left in 2001, Sami Yli-Sirniö was brought in.

Birth Dates:
Jurgen "Ventor" Reil (29th June 1966 Germany)
Miland "Mille" Petrozza (18th December 1966, Germany)
Christian "Speesy" Giesler (4th July 1970, Germany)
Jorg "Tritze" Trzebiatowski (16th July 1967, Germany)
Sami Yli-Sirniö (10th April 1972, Finland)

Also see:
Kreator - Live At Zal Ozhidanija, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 10-03-2013 [bootleg] - 2013