Kragens was formed in the year 2000 and consists these days of five band members: Renaud Espeche (vocals), Cedric Sellier (guitar), Ludwig Laperche (guitar), Olivier Gavelle (drums) and Denis Malek (bass). According to the metal archives, this band contains members of 80`s French heavy metal bands, such as Demon Eyes, Lynx, Thorium or Tribal. So far, the band has released a demo in 2001, a debut album in 2004 (“Dying In A Desert”) and this full-length album.

Kragens hails from Nice, a city in the utter southeast of France near the Mediterranean sea. From this often very warm place the band preaches very interesting metal of an undefined type. This metal can not easily be labeled as a specific style, but its core is a combination of heavy and thrash metal, sounding a bit like a mix of Slayer, Iron Maiden and Dream Theater.

The music is of very high quality: well played with a good production. The songs are full of guitar solo’s and a lot of breaks, which sometimes gives it more or less a power metal sound. Weird enough now and then the music changes in outright death metal and even has some blackish parts.

Overall, Kragens is an original metal band which combines many different metal styles in a high quality way. The album is worth listening to and probably the most interesting for heavy metal fans.