0
Sodom
Sodom
German thrash metal band
1
Sami Yli-Sirniö
Sami Yli-Sirniö
Finnish guitarist
2
Suicidal Angels
Suicidal Angels
band that plays thrash metal
3
Destruction
Destruction
German thrash metal band
4
Mille Petrozza
Mille Petrozza
German singer and guitarist
5
Lazarus A.D.
Lazarus A.D.
American metal band
6
Exodus
Exodus
American thrash metal band
7
Waltari
Waltari
Finnish band
8
Iron Angel
Iron Angel
German band
9
Power Trip
Power Trip
American thrash metal band
10
Venom
Venom
English thrash metal band
11
Gama Bomb
Gama Bomb
band
12
Death Angel
Death Angel
American thrash metal band
13
Overkill
Overkill
American thrash metal band
14
Despair
Despair
band
15
Sepultura
Sepultura
Brazilian Metal Band
16
Raven
Raven
English heavy metal band
17
DragonForce
DragonForce
British power metal rock band
18
Evile
Evile
English thrash metal band
19
Hirax
Hirax
American thrash metal band
20
Krisiun
Krisiun
Brazilian death metal band
21
Slayer
Slayer
American thrash metal band
22
Savage Messiah
Savage Messiah
23
Testament
Testament
American metal band
24
Trivium
Trivium
American heavy metal band
25
Aura Noir
Aura Noir
band
26
Anthrax
Anthrax
heavy metal band from USA
27
Primal Fear
Primal Fear
German power metal and speed metal band
28
Arch Enemy
Arch Enemy
Swedish melodic death metal band
29
Warbringer
Warbringer
American band
30
Christian Giesler
Christian Giesler
German musician
31
Megadeth
Megadeth
American heavy metal band
32
Onslaught
Onslaught
band
33
Lamb of God
Lamb of God
metal band from United States
34
Heathen
Heathen
American thrash metal band
35
Frank Gosdzik
Frank Gosdzik
German musician
36
Desaster
Desaster
band
37
Prong
Prong
American heavy metal band
38
Machine Head
Machine Head
American metal band
39
Five Finger Death Punch
Five Finger Death Punch
American heavy metal band
40
Grave Digger
Grave Digger
German heavy metal band
41
Doro
Doro
German singer and frontwoman of Warlock
42
Carcass
Carcass
British extreme metal band
43
Hatesphere
Hatesphere
band
44
Tankard
Tankard
German metal band
45
Annihilator
Annihilator
Canadian thrash metal band
46
Hatebreed
Hatebreed
American metalcore band
47
Amon Amarth
Amon Amarth
Swedish metal band
48
Sacrifice
Sacrifice
Canadian thrash metal band
49
Massacre
Massacre
American death metal band
50
Deströyer 666
Deströyer 666
Australian extreme metal band
51
Flotsam and Jetsam
Flotsam and Jetsam
thrash metal group from Phoenix, Arizona
52
Dagoba
Dagoba
band
53
The Sword
The Sword
American band
54
Vio-lence
Vio-lence
American thrash metal band formed in 1985
55
Accept
Accept
German heavy metal band
56
Kryptos
Kryptos
band
57
Exciter
Exciter
Canadian speed metal band
58
Stone Sour
Stone Sour
American heavy metal band
59
Kataklysm
Kataklysm
Canadian death metal band
60
Bullet For My Valentine
Bullet For My Valentine
Welsh metal band
61
Powersurge
Powersurge
Bangladeshi thrash metal band
62
Alestorm
Alestorm
multi-national metal band

Kreator is a German thrash metal band from Essen, formed in 1982. Their current lineup consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Miland "Mille" Petrozza, drummer Jürgen "Ventor" Reil, lead guitarist Sami Yli-Sirniö, and bassist Frédéric Leclercq. The band's lineup has changed multiple times over its 39-year career, most noticeably with their bassists and lead guitarists. Petrozza and Reil are the only two original members left in Kreator, though the latter had been out of the band from 1994 to 1996. Yli-Sirniö has been the lead guitarist of Kreator since 2001, while Leclercq joined in 2019 as the replacement of Christian "Speesy" Giesler, who had been a member of the band since 1994.

To date, Kreator has released fourteen studio albums, two EPs, two live albums and three compilation albums. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international thrash metal community, with their second studio album Pleasure to Kill (1986) regarded as an influential album of the genre. Many of their subsequent albums – including Terrible Certainty (1987), Extreme Aggression (1989) and Coma of Souls (1990) – were also highly acclaimed. Despite being an influential band, as well as one of the first European thrash metal acts to sign to a major label (signing to Epic Records in 1988), Kreator would not achieve mainstream popularity until later albums, including their thirteenth studio album Phantom Antichrist (2012) and its follow-up Gods of Violence (2017), both of which charted highly in many countries, with the latter reaching number one on the German charts. They are currently working on a new album, which is tentatively due for release in 2021 or 2022.

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. Along with Destruction, Sodom and Tankard, Kreator is one of the "big four" of Teutonic thrash metal, responsible for developing and popularizing the German thrash metal scene as well as pioneering the then-burgeoning death metal and black metal genres during the mid-1980s.