In Greek mythology, the titan Kronos was the father of Zeus, and he was slain by him. Zeus then became the leader of the Immortals. The irony of this is that Kronos came also to power by slaying his own father and was told by him that he one day would be slain by his own son. In order to prevent this he ate all his children but somehow Zeus managed to escape and killed his father later on.

The Kronos we know nowadays is a French brutal death metal band which was formed in 1994 by some very young fellows. In the early days they played thrash metal but gradually they ventured into more brutal territories. Their first album was positively welcomed in the scene and has sold 2000 copies to this day. This was interesting enough for Spanish label Xtreem Music (Managed by Dave Rotten from the well known death metal band Avulsed) to sign them for their next 2 albums. They still have a link with mythology though, as the whole lyrical concept of Kronos is aimed towards Greek Mythology in the same way as Nile does with Egyptian Mythology.

Musically Kronos doesn’t resemble Nile, it sounds at first glance like a U.S. brutal death metal band like Deeds Of Flesh or even Decrepit Birth. But Kronos is more, way more melodic without losing its brutal touch.

Everything on “Colossal Titan Strife” sounds right. The tracks are well written and are full of tempo changes and exiting breaks. Singer Kristof has a varied throat, from guttural to less guttural and even Gorerotted style screaming; the man does it all. Another thing that makes CTS a more than standard release is the production. The cd was recorded with Kris Belaen who already produced Aborted and No Return so it’s no surprise the sound is fat as hell.

Kronos manages to successfully blend European style and American style death metal together into one hell (or Hades) of a cd. The powerful riffing, the exquisite soloing, and the very good production all make this the best Xtreem release so far and the band deserves to gain some recognition out of this.