Not even the most metal guy in my high school, the guy who played guitar, smoked, wore metal patches on his denim jacket, and introduced me to weed, was checking for European bands. We just didn't know about Kreator or anybody like that. We were pretty isolated.

>Here in sweden, they were obviously not Big 4 status but
>Kreator at least was *definitely* Testament or Exodus-status
>in terms of popularity, possibly above; Sodom were not far
>behind. Those bands were very important because they sounded
>harsher and more "proto-death" in delivery than MOST of the
>big american acts... They were definitely important as
>"threshold" bands for me and I still dig their shit even if it
>lacks the refinement of US thrash (well, before 89 or so;
>after that, Kreator got quite slick) which isn't even a minus
>to me...
>
>EDIT:YOu didn't even dig King Diamond (denmark/sweden)? I
>thought he/they were huge (well, metal-circles) in the US...

We knew about Mercyful Fate, but I can't recall if I knew anyone who actually owned an album. Maybe a poster who grew up in a more cosmopolitan area had a different experience.