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This is not an official release, but a promotional CD-r with tracks from two of Kratornas’ releases, the “Hecatomb To Affliction”-tape (two tracks from it) and the “The Onslaught Of Battledemons” 10” (three tracks from it), both out on Ordealis Records.

Kratornas play a chaotic and sometimes rather insane style of Thrash/Black Metal (or Blackened Thrash Metal, whichever way you want it). The songs themselves are pretty good, with some insanely mindless solos, a mixture of slower, more rhythmic sections and faster, chaotic and cacophonous sections, and in general a style that pleases at least me. However, there is a “but”. A big “but”, and that is the sound, which is fucked up to the extent of being disturbingly counterproductive. It’s worse on the tracks from “Hecatomb To Affliction”, but the tracks from the 10” suffer from this too. First of all, sometimes the sound just degenerates into a wall of chaos, from which nothing can be discerned. Secondly, the vocals and drums are too loud, whilst the guitars are too silent, and quite thin.

Whilst production is secondary to the quality of the music, it does detract quite a lot from the end result. Musically, Kratornas have what it takes to be good… when they get a proper sound that contributes to, instead of detracting from, the whole, they will rise to a whole new level.