Review by Elijah on April 28, 2020.

The 1990's, a terrifying era for thrash metal because most of the bands converted to a rock/alternative sound or filler thrash. Sure, Renewal may fall victim to not being pure thrash, but it's definitely not a bad album, not at all.

My absolute favorite part of this album are the drums. They sound absolutely amazing, the snare is solid, tight, poppy, and it fills in every beat and measure greatly. You can't ever go wrong with a solid and amazing snare, absolutely beautiful. The guitars do have a thrashy sound, but rather than being used to create pure thrash riffs and songs, it's designed to have a more laid back and restricted feel and focuses more on the pure sound rather than ability. I suppose you could call this "industrial thrash metal", this is Kreator's first experimental album, and thankfully it's not bad.

When thrash bands try out new things in the 1990's it's usually a shitshow, but gladly Renewal isn't. It's far from a shitshow actually, this is truly a beautiful album and it's really overlooked and mislabeled as a "flawed 90's 'thrash' album". The songs display a huge array of emotion, and it really does speak to me. Whenever I'm in a sad mood, or a chilled-out mood, or even when it's raining outside and it's fucking peaceful and relaxing, this album is perfect for any of those scenarios, especially the rain. Match made in heaven. The simplistic riffs do their own thing throughout the songs and the album, and the more you listen the more you'll appreciate it all. I'd say to fully appreciate and see the true beauty of this album, you have to be in the right setting or a certain state of mind. Like rain, a perfect example. It's just an album that absolutely FITS with an atmosphere like that. It's simply gorgeous, can't really form it into words.

The standout tracks are for sure 'Winter Martyrium', 'Renewal', 'Reflection', and 'Brainseed'. Pretty much the first few songs are the best standout ones, even though every track is realistically. 'Winter Martyrium' is a pretty flexible song, it has several different sections and it's pretty cool. It gives me happy and positive upbeat vibes and I love the drum patterns on it. 'Renewal' is where it starts to get more emotional and where the beauty starts to stand out. The start of the song has a few hallowed strums of guitar with drums that follow, the beginning of that song makes me think of a setting where you're in a city, or a big deserted area, and it's raining and you're all alone. It just makes my head expand and think about the settings each song depicts. The main riff of the song is catchy and pleasing to the ear. 'Reflection' sounds like you're walking in the middle of a small blizzard/snowstorm, you're going against the tough weather while the harsh snow is being blown everywhere all around you, a lengthy challenge, but it'll be all worth it at the end point. 'Brainseed' is a pretty in-itself track, the main aspect of the song is a metallic-sounding smack/hit that's basically a beat that repeats itself over and over. It's simply catchy and it's the main hook of the song. These 4 tracks are the greatest parts and are the backbone of the album that start it off properly and in a good direction.

There may be best tracks that stand out the most compared to others, but pretty much every track has all the elements that I previously described. Every song matter, every song is cool. Nothing really fails here, the band manages to properly maintain an ongoing formula.

The tone of the guitar followed by the song structures and patterns in every song creates a little story or experience I should say. I just think this is entertaining and catchy, I like listening to the whole album and going on a cool adventure and waiting for all my favorite parts, it's an intriguing experience that's super fun and makes me feel an array of emotions. Especially when you're in the right setting, it'll HIT THE SPOT.

Renewal isn't all that bad, it's an album you have to get used to and spend time with to understand it. Is it absolutely perfect? No. Is it terrible? Not in the slightest. Every track has a personality, some may be a little lazy, but at some point in any of the songs it'll have something interesting, and that's fine. Kreator wanted to try something different, and it's not bad. Experimental doesn't ALWAYS mean bad, this is a prime example. Renewal is an acquired taste that's appreciated only by a certain amount. I love this album and I always will, definitely one of my top favorites by Kreator. 

Rating: 9.5 out of 10                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Review by Felix on March 22, 2020.

Split singles are always a nice thing in view if their two-in-one design. Here we have a liaison between two formations that like filthy anthems and boozy vibrations. Whiskey Ritual present more or less well-known sounds, because they appear once again as the dirty comrades of Turbonegro (remember their cover of 'Denim Demon' on Black Metal Ultras). It’s a very negro-like riffing that drives the mid-fast 'The Worm'. Catchiness is combined with mercilessly squeezing guitars, but the real earworm is the next track. You will immediately agree as soon as you know that I am talking about a cover version of 'Somebody Put Something in My Drink' from the unforgotten Ramones. You cannot improve their original tunes, that’s the dilemma for every band and Whiskey Ritual do not mark an exception. Anyway, the chorus keeps sticking in the ear in a matter of seconds, but I hope all of you know the track for many years. Just as a footnote, it was not written by DeeDee or Joey (R.I.P., dudes), but by Richie Ramone. Hail the drumming man!

Both Whiskey Ritual and Surge Assault throw their songs with a dirty, the underground adoring sound into the imaginary crowd. (By the way, measly 300 copies of the split will never generate a real crowd.) Technical nuances either fall victim to the clumpy mix or they were absent right from the beginning. Anyway, “Lust and Misery” was a perfect album in my eyes and from the top you can only go down. This time Surge Assualt do not reach perfection, but both tracks of (no cover version here) prolong their black thrash program. The aura is darker than that of the full-length, but maybe this is just due to the undifferentiated technical execution. The riffing, the vocals, the velocity, everything works well and shows the vital force of the underground. Seven minutes are not enough to make me totally enthusiastic about their music one more time, nevertheless, I regret that this energetic combo does not deliver more new tracks. It’s still dirty and violent fun to listen to their angry outbursts.

A final question remains: why is this vinyl-only release listed under the name Worms, Blood & Pills? The gatefold cover does not indicate this title, the Facebook side of Surge Assault also does not mention this name. However, I won’t rack my tired brain to solve this mystery. It’s better to put number 252 of 300 on the turntable and start a little headbanging session.

Rating: 8.3 out of 10