Kronos
COLOSSAL TITAN STRIFE

February 2004
Released: 2004, Xtreem Music
Rating: 3.8/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

The French metal scene has always been a bit underrated--at least, that´s what I think. That particular country, with a fine and sophisticated culture, has been producing many great metal bands through many years that have been left more or less unnoticed by a larger audience. Agressor, Loudblast, Mutilated, Abyssals, No Return, Nightmare, Vorkreist, Scarve, etc. are only but a few bands worthy of mention out of both the past and current French metal scene and now I´m glad to have a chance to announce that French death metallers Kronos can be added to the very same pile.



The band was formed back in 1994, 10 years ago - and when Kronos was formed, the guys were only from 13 to 17 years old. Back then, these fellows tended to play a mishmash of both Heavy and Thrash Metal. By skipping most of their history however, the band´s debut album TITAN´S AWAKENING was released as late as in 2001 on a French label called Warpath Records which sold over 2000 units worldwide and got the recognition for the band that they deserved.



In early 2003 Kronos signed a two album deal with a Spanish label Xtreem Music and in the Fall of 2003 the guys traveled to Belgium´s CCR Studios to record their 2nd full-length album titled COLOSSAL TITAN STRIFE that also is kind of a concept album based on the Greek Mythology. Eleven songs were captured into tapes within these recording sessions; eleven songs that are about to beat the shit out of a listener, at least metaphorically speaking and even without exaggerating more than this lil´ infamous Devil on my left shoulder told me to do.



The Kronos–camp relies on nearly a maximal brutality and heaviness in Death Metal, basically focusing on all those things that could be considered ´essential´ or ´must have´ in the most extreme Death Metal genre. On COLOSSAL TITAN STRIFE hand-in-hand goes in a great harmony both muscular and heavy riffs, furious blast beat attacks, well thought-out solos, relatively unexpected twists and turns in song arrangements, incredibly low and brutal vocal grunts that are supported by a somewhat technical playing level of this French quintet. Also, I just cannot help comparing them to such existing Death Metal patrols as Severe Torture, Cryptopsy and Aborted as quite a few similarities can be thrown toward the direction of those 3 aforementioned Death Metal bands without hesitating a bit.



I don´t feel like analyzing this album song by song by looking any deeper and better into them as it´s a bit unnecessary in this particular case because I already did mention a couple of bands by names in comparison to Kronos just recently. If you are a sucker of a modern-day brutal and sadistic Death Metal sound, then there´s no question you will most probably love this band. “Aeturnus Pharaohs Curse”, “Haterealm” and “Infernal Worms Field...” – let these songs be my recommended picks from this not-so-revolutionary, but damn tight, strong and hammering Death Metal release. Kronos indeed does fuckin´ slay in the realm of today´s Death Metal and if you even dared to doubt it...



Uh... whatta fuck: Viva la French Death Metal forever and even THIS MUCH more...!! Yes, indeed...