Long serving Philippines hell commander Bruno Zamora ascends once more from the pit with his one man chaos creation Kratornas to wreak havoc with this latest venomous offering ‘The Corroding Age Of Wounds’.

Despite enjoying longevity in the extreme metal scene and releasing a string of demos which have polarised opinions and received a variety of mixed reviews this eight song juggernaut is only the second full length from Kratornas, an outfit not easy to box into one simple category.

Names such as Sadistik Execution, Marduk, Krisiun and Morbid Angel have been mentioned previously as an unholy concoction the hellish blasting noise brutality of Kratornas is comparable to and certainly there are facets of these bands seeping through the work but more succinctly Kratornas has plenty in common with the unrelenting barrage that is American outfit War Plague, right down to the crushing riffs and some of the most furious drum programming imaginable.

Over the course of its existence Kratornas hasn’t ever particularly adhered to one singular style; instead preferring to toss the likes of grind, death, thrash and black into one bloody arena to let them tangle like crazed cage fighters and this latest album exhibits no desire to take any steps away from that reckless and glorious head on genre collision.

Howling gales of guitar drag us into ‘The Corroding Age Of Wounds’ on first track ‘Beasts From The Sea’, the longest composition here at seven and a half minutes of tempestuous structures and chaotic infernal sound which though ,moderate in temperament to begin with soon lengthens out into a quick single axe line and then explodes into jack hammering insanity.

Savage scathing and absolutely demonic vocals writhe out of the fiery pits of raging riffery and the incessant brutal battering of the percussion.

This is a furious melange of grind, death and the more brutal end of black with fast paced melodies scissoring through the violent ensemble of sound and a multitude of sustained hostility in terms of both vocal attack and all involved instrumentation. Newcomers to the hellborne universe of Kratornas will have no idea what the fuck is going on and ultimately will probably succumb to the bludgeoning frenzy and pass out under the crushing weight.

Interesting guitar passages and sections litter this track, from the all out unstoppable waves to more controlled recurring rolls and erratic and discomfortingly irregular lead breaks, all keeping from becoming a monotonous entity especially once the vocal screams and hollow howls become more audible and focused.

The Philippines noise inferno is not concerned with abating the unmitigated blasting assault or ceasing the battering ram approach whatsoever.

Snarling savageries like ‘On Dying Aeons’, ‘Three Unclean Spirits’ and ‘Darkness And Dust’ come plundering in like galloping hell steeds urged on by fiery riding crops and rancorous spurs.

The first of these three marries pinched harmonics and burly death thrash riffing to cold ice spires of BM type guitar with furious demonic belches all glued together by those overpowering percussive detonations whilst ‘Three Unclean Spirits’ has something of a more punky black metal crust vibe going on, amped up Darkthrone riffs head butting Carpathian Forest overtures prior to the drums setting off on a tumult of blast beats.

A bludgeoning brute of a number ‘Three Unclean Spirits’ occasionally strips away the percussive salvos to enable stinging traces of guitar to take charge but mostly it remains a giant slamming wall of sound full of howling dissonance, soaking industrial atmospheres, scattered leads and painfully violent guitars.

One particular favourite of mine in this marauding ensemble is the frenetic head pounding blast of ‘Flood Of Fire’.

Old school death and thrash stuff battle it out in the relentless mire of this composition which sees Zamora keeping his foot on the accelerator with vicious strafing attacks of riffery and machine gun bursts of skull caving percussion volleys.

The downside to the piece for me is a few too many schizophrenic leads breaking out in unpredictable firecracker explosions and occasionally having all else mercilessly trampled by the storm of battery and this is a characteristic not limited to this alone but most of the songs.

Awesome riffs abound throughout though often they are swamped by the deluge of percussion and the same goes for some of the vocals which could create better impact if their audibility wasn’t drowned out.

Just on the riffs another drawback arises as well in the fact that some of them aren’t exactly allowed enough time or room to breathe and expand.

Sometimes I think it would be preferable if Kratornas grappled with the muscular guitar passages a fraction longer (such as the beauty on ‘Interstellar Doom’) instead of shooting off on the asymmetrical tangents as so frequently happens.

All the same, inconsequential negatives aside the bestial sick thrashing organism that is Kratornas kicks ass like nobody’s business.

‘The Corroding Age Of Wounds’ is a remorseless stomping barrage of hell fuelled insanity which no fan of especially violent noisy genre bending music will be able to resist.

Highly recommended if you love your brutal music to literally boot the absolute crap out of you.

Written By Jamie Goforth

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