Formed in Essen, Germany in 1982, Kreator are arguably the most influential and successful European thrash metal band ever; like many of their European speed metal brethren, Kreator fused Metallica's thrash innovations with Venom's proto-black metal imagery. Kreator has been referred to as one of the "Big 4" of Teutonic thrash metal, and they are often credited with helping pioneer death metal and black metal by containing several elements of what was to become those genres. The band has achieved worldwide sales of over two million units for combined sales of all their albums, making them one of the best-selling German thrash metal bands of all time. Kreator's style has changed several times over the years, from a Venom-inspired speed metal sound, later moving in to thrash metal, and including a period of transitioning from thrash to industrial metal and gothic metal throughout the 1990s. In the early 2000s, Kreator returned to their classic thrash sound, which has continued to the present. Pleasure to Kill, the second studio album by Kreator, was originally released in November 1986 by Noise Records. The lyrical themes follow those found on their first album. Still considered the band's first "classic" album, Pleasure to Kill raised the bar with more diversity of tempos and greater attention to technical execution, while losing nothing in terms of ferocity or speed. The band closed out the year with the Flag of Hate EP (named after a re-recorded version of their earliest hit) which is included on this version. Many death metal bands cite this album as an influence. Pleasure to Kill is widely considered a thrash classic. It is also considered a landmark album in the history of thrash metal along with Master of Puppets by Metallica, Reign In Blood by Slayer and Darkness Descends by Dark Angel, all released in 1986.