Come molte delle realtà di quella zona asiatica, Kratornas propone un black metal fortemente influenzato da elementi death, anzi più precisamente grindcore.

Si tratta quindi di musica velocissima, caratterizzata da una batteria che è più simile ad un martello pneumatico. I riff di chitarra sono anch’essi molto veloci, ma non come la drum machine, che a tratti sembra, non fuori tempo, ma decisamente poco orecchiabile.

Il lato “grind” lo sentiamo, oltre che nei ritmi frenetici della musica, nelle parti vocali, dove è presente il solito misto di gorgogli e voci in screm.

Indubbiamente, si tratta di un lavoro potente e devastante, supportato da una buona produzione.

Tuttavia manca l’intensità, le emozioni; si tratta insomma di un disco freddo e meccanico,che non trasmette niente all’ascoltatore, se non una cieca violenza.

Alla lunga, le canzoni si somigliano e si confondono un po’ troppo fra di loro: diventa così difficile che rimangano in testa di chi le ascolta.
“The Corroding Age of Wounds” è insomma un disco per fanatici del sound violento, di quelli che apprezzano Impiety e simili. Dubito possa interessare ad altri.

Autore: {Mirror}

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There are a lot of very catchy guitar riffs on here most of which are fast but there are a few instances in songs like “Three Unclean Spirits,” and “Darkness And Dusk,“ where it slows down but still manages to keep that destructive vibe. There are also a lot of instances in songs like “Flood Of Fire,“ when the drums and bass will stop for a couple seconds and the guitar will play a real killer riff.

The drums do a lot of blast beats but there are some other techniques used so its not just one nonstop blast beat. The album starts off with the track “Beasts From The Sea,” and it does a great job of grabbing your attention right off that bat and the album does not let up until its over. “Beasts From the Sea,” starts off some high pitched guitars that set a dark atmosphere then a fast riff is played and the destruction begins.

All in al this is one bad ass release. Its filled up to the brim with aggressive music that will put you in the mood to rip someone’s head off. While each song is pretty awesome and has its own unique sound the ones that stick out most are “Beasts From The Sea,” “On Dying Aeons,” “Flood Of Fire,” and the chock full of different of guitar riffs “Interstellar Doom.” I would highly recommend this album to fans of bands like Impiety, Early krisiun early morbid angel, and Nifelheim.

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Krachfetischisten werden aber voll auf ihre Kosten kommen, hier regiert der Charme der alten Schule, nicht nur aufgrund der eingestreuten fiepigen Slayer-Soli-Abrisse, sondern auch wegen der chaotischen, irrwitzigen Grundstimmung des Albums. Technisch einwandfreie Produktion, glattgebügelte Strukturen, harmonisches Klangbild? Zum Glück Fehlanzeige. Der Gesang ist zwar ein wenig verfremdet, boxt sich aber nichtsdestotrotz vehement seinen Weg durch den Soundturm. In “Interstellar Doom” gibt’s dann noch einen kurzen Ausflug in technisch vertracktere Gefilde, ehe wieder der Black/Thrash-Dampfhammer regiert. Für Anhänger von Sadiztik Impaler und Konsorten sehr empfehlenswert!

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Don’t get me wrong, if you’re in for a good bit of mindless debauchery, Kratornas is all game. Sole member “Bruno Zamora” does knows how to go all-out. On The Corroding Age Of Wounds, he set set his drum computer to ‘blast inhumanely fast’ and hooked it up with a sterile and dry sound for extra viciousness. He spews his filth threw shrieks and croaks and throws out one high-speed noise-riff after another. For the icing on the cake, he must’ve thought, “I’ll mix in the occasional blistering shredfest-solo á la a drunk Kerry King in the background, and my nihilistic sonic manifesto is complete!

Well, unfortunately that doesn’t work as well as you’d imagine. Is it corrosive? Certainly. Utterly extreme? Undeniably. Incredibly intense? Not so much. Why not? Because it lacks songwriting that captures and embraces the listener. It’s too sterile, perhaps, but certainly too samey and dull. After metal really went extreme in the eighties, people like Mr. Zamora needs to realize that mere speed and distortion just doesn’t cut it anymore. We need new ideas, innovators and new musical concepts if we want to keep pushing the boundaries of extreme music. Music like this is impressive only to the inexperienced. Save a few catchy parts scattered around, largely forgettable.

Performance: 7
Songwriting: 5
Originality: 5
Production: 6

RATING: 6.0

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Automatisch heb je bepaalde verwachtingen bij een plaat uit een niet regulier metalland. Bij mij gingen deze verwachtingen deels op. De black metal van Kratornas is namelijk zo primitief als mijn oma’s houtkachel en veel muzikale verrassingen zijn er op deze plaat niet te vinden. Slecht is het echter beslist niet. Het extreem ratelende en soms donderende drumwerk (machinegun-blasts?) in combinatie met een 1349-gitaarsound bevalt me erg goed. Of de drumcomputer hier van dienst is weet ik niet, maar het klinkt in ieder geval best overtuigend. Op vocaal gebied geeft Zamora me soms een Absu-gevoel, maar verdere raakvlakken met die band blijven uit. Voor de rest is dit rauw, veelal snel en soms warrig. Kenmerkend is het chaotische gitaargepiel in bijvoorbeeld Three Unclean Spirits en de doorgaans repeterende riffs die dit album een fikse brok agressie meegeven. Helaas duurt dit album met vijftig minuten gewoonweg te lang. Daar is deze muziek niet op gebouwd en de riffs zijn daar niet interessant genoeg voor.

Geen slecht werk van deze heer, boven verwachting zelfs. Fans van furieuze black metal zonder nieuwerwetse fratsen moeten dit echt eens checken. Ik wil Zamora adviseren meer herkenningspunten aan zijn muziek toe te voegen, dan blijft het langer
boeien.

Review by: Martijn van den Beukel
Score: 72/100

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If you’re not too familiar with Kratornas, you might think of them as rather representative of the South-Eastern Asian scene. While the first recordings were very similar to bands like Haine Noire with that distinctive crackling sound with almost industrial accents, this Corroding Age Of Wounds seems to be the album of maturity for Bruno.

Few Black Metal fans had really accepted the overwhelming solos featured on Kratornas’ debut. It seemed at the time that Bruno wanted to show off except that Black Metal does not need guitar heroes. Especially if those said guitar heroes are one-man bands… Such demonstrations had almost discouraged most potential fans but the man honed his skills and learned to put out some proper songs. This is especially true now with his latest offering.

Yes, there are still some of those solos but all in all they’re better integrated within the songs and they don’t look like “oh man, look how nice I play”. The Corroding Age of Wounds is also a lot more thrashy than its predecessors and it makes for a good experience.

While the singing could be reminiscent of Immortal on drugs, the music is very much typical of that scene and you’ll find many similarities with bands like Istidraj or even Sadiztik Impaler.

I only have two concerns regarding this album which I must voice out. Though I’m not fully allergic to drum programming, this looks like a half-ass attempt especially for the most furious and fastest parts of the record. Too much is too much and if Bruno can’t find a proper drummer for his music, I’d suggest he’d fine-tune that programming to be more acceptable. Also, while all the songs develop something of their own, it wouldn’t have hurt the album to be a bit shorter. No need to elaborate for 7 or 8 minutes on the same two riffs. We get the picture.

It’s a good album. It could have been great if it was kept concise but looking at Kratornas’ evident progression, I’m pretty confident that the next one will kick even more ass.

Review by: GandhiEgo
Score: 13/20

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Music related news… I guess, nothing much to say. Besides, music is a no-no now. People keep on praising retarded noise (ie: ka0tik) and Kratornas has nothing to do with that kind of shit anymore, ah ah! And yes, website is back. It happens that I got a life OFFLINE and forgot of renewing the site on its host, so…

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Bass guitars on this recording have a really dark tone that plays the role of a rythym bass., while the guitar rythyms take the heavist elements of black, death and thrash with some really fast riffs that are very heavy and brutal, as for the guitar leads they are very noisy and chaotic.

Vocals are very high pitched black metal screams that sound very brutal and evil which is what is needed for this music, while the production sounds very professional and reminds me of the sounds of the early to mid 90’s Sweedish black metal classics, as for the lyrics they seem to cover some dark topics that kind of have a left hand vibe to them judging by the name of the songs.

In my opinion this is a really good album while this recording kind of seemms too long for a fast black metal with a time limit of 50 minutes I still feel this band has alot of potentainal and the brutality of this album is among the most skull crushing I have heard so far and this is the heaviest one man band I have ever heard.

RECOMMENDED TRACKS ARE “Beasts From The Sea” and “Flood Of Fire” which mixes some effects in with the Heaviness and speed. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

by: Erik White // OccultBlackMetal Zine

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Review: Covenant Zine
I Kratornas, e nello specifico il suo unico componente Bruno Zamora, meriterebbero una medaglia al valore solo per la lunga militanza nell’undeground, si parla quasi di quindici anni di attività per la band filippina. Portare avanti una band in un paese difficile come le Filippine non è assolutamente facile, e sebbene la qualità delle svariate releases prodotte in questi anni dal caro Bruno non sempre era in grado di raggiungere la sufficienza, la passione che filtrava da ogni releases è comunque sempre tanta. Per coloro che ancora non hanno mai sentito parlare dei Kratornas, riassumo brevemente la loro storia. Partiti con i primi demo nella fine degli anni novanta, la band proponeva un black noise tanto folle quanto mal registrato, per poi spostarsi gradualmente su territori raw e thrash black metal, soprattutto con il full-lenght di debutto del 2007 “Over The Fourth Part Of The Earth”, dove quest’ultima componente prevale nettamente. Dopo uno split ed una interessante raccolta con brani presi dai primissimi demo della band, è tempo per i Kratornas di tornare sconquassarci i timpani con questo “The Corroding Age Of Wounds”.

L’inizio è devastante, “Beasts From The Sea” con la sua drum-machine impazzita sembra rievocare un bombardamento aereo. Il guitar-riffing di Zamora si rivolge principalmente ai Marduk di “Panzer Division Marduk”, condito però dall’immancabile thrash di “Over The Forth Part Of The Earth”, ben seguita da “On Dying Aeons”, top-track della release. Rispetto al debut, vengono ridotti al lumicino gli assoli slayeriani, scelta assolutamente felice visto l’abuso fatto in precedenza, preferendo un assalto “straight-to-your-face”. Si sente una notevole progressione stilistica, meno caos fine a se stesso e più quadratura nella costruzione dei pezzi. Certo, non un po’ di stanchezza inizia a sentirsi a metà disco, visto che la proposta dei Kratornas non presenta innovazioni di alcun tipo, e la drum machine sparata risulta spesso molto invadente, annullando nelle parti più veloci persino il lavoro delle chitarre.

Insomma, un lavoro con i suoi pro e con i contro questo “The Corroding Age Of Wounds”, sebbene una netto miglioramento sia riscontrabile su ogni fronte. Zamora con questo lavoro riesce a toccare il suo apice compositivo sotto il monicker Kratornas, ma molto deve essere ancora risolto per poter centrare un capolavoro, in particolar modo sistemare in qualche modo la drum-machine. L’unico grosso neo di una produzione che tuttosommato è ben bilanciata e raw al punto giusto. A parte questo, la triade iniziale “Beasts From The Sea”, “On Dying Aeons” e “Three Unclean Spirits” spacca veramente, bene così… avanti Kratornas!!!

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