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Kratornas > Hecatomb to Affliction > Reviews
Kratornas - Hecatomb to Affliction

Kratornas - Hecatomb to Affliction - 80%

vorfeed, May 11th, 2004

Artist: Kratornas
Album Title: Hecatomb to Affliction (Demo)
Label: Self-Released

This is the second demo from Kratornas, a band from the Philippines that plays raw, chaotic thrashing black metal.

The guitar here is a thrashing wall of sound, with some old-school metal lead parts. The drums are almost entirely blast-beats, though they slow down to an stately beat every now and again. The vocals are easily the best part of Kratornas - they're heavily distorted snarls, and they lend the recording a particularly sick atmosphere.

Kratornas' songwriting is excellent. This demo is three songs, and nearly half an hour long, yet there's not a boring moment. The last few minutes of "Hollow Ground Destruction" are especially noteworthy, as it sounds as if the band is firing off heavy munitions after each riff! These songs are highly chaotic, but the band's performance is more than good enough to pull it off, giving the demo a natural flow that belies its complexity. The mix here isn't the best, but it works well for this style of metal, especially the distorted, booming drums.

This is one of the best demos I've heard in a while. Kratornas is certainly worth looking into, especially for fans of dirty, thrashing Asian metal. Recommended.

Standout Tracks: "Hollow Ground Destruction"

Review by Vorfeed: http://www.vorfeed.net

The Pacific's demon yet strike hard - 80%

Trepas, November 27th, 2003

After an absence of 4 years, Kratornas is back with a new album. And the asiatic south-east's demon is as destructive and unhealthy as ever. The metal scenes of this part of the world has offered us some of the most blasphemous and chaotic bands (like Abhorer, Impiety, Bazzah, Prophecy), but this band from the Philippines is the most depraved of them.

"Hecatomb to Affliction" was writed in 1998, but was only recorded in 2003. For those who already know Kratornas, it's yet a torrent of morbid chaos, of vocals coming from the deepest abyss of the Pacific, and of filthy loudness. This album is on the other hand slightly more melodic than "The Onslaught of Battledemons", with some more quiet parts ; possibly more in the veine of the demo "Enorth Eht Nihtiw Si Taog Eht", but without keyboard. But don't worry, it's always the same good old destructive Kratornas. The album is formed of only 3 songs, but they are long songs (1 of 4:23, and the 2 others of more than 10 minutes). Like the canadian band Lust, despite of there butality, Kratornas is yet an enough technical band, what make of them rather a complete band. For sure, even if the black metal scene has absolutely advanced during the last 4 years, Kratornas is yet the most extrem band of the world black metal scene.

The music of many bands are qualified of insane, extrem and/or chaotic black metal, but generally, it's totally false, and it's only a marketing tool. But, for Kratornas, all this terms define them perfectly. Besides, no one must can use this terms for describe a black metal band if he never heard Kratornas, Goatpenis, Lust (Canada), Enbilulugugal and Botulistum.