"Looking Behind The Mirror" is ancient. The six songs of this album (coupled with a 2002 track, for my opinion, the most interesting one of the whole promo) were recorded during the summer of 1999. Kratos comes from Romania and delivers (surprise, surprise ! ! !) Romanian Gothic Metal. For those of you who aren't familiar with the genre, Romanian Gothic Metal isn't that different from the Dutch Gothic Metal, which is quite similar to the Scandinavian Gothic Metal Kratos delivers thus a kind of Gothic influenced Doomy Metal. The vocal parts alternate between quite different approaches (Thomas Karlsson's influence appears: Tristitia's first singer with more attractive low Death Metal growlingthe whole thing coupled with weak ethereal female vocal lines thrown in here and there). Dark emotional music full of quiet sections underlined by key atmospheres that actually stand on their own and add ambiance. Very "feel good" music, not original at all but quite easy to get into (mainly if you like those special vocal works). Typically, the sort of thing you would sit down and relax to, though some themes may benefit to be shortened a bit.

Rumunsko je na doom/gothic metal vcelku dost produktivn? i kdy? ne v?echno je zrovna dvakr?t kvalitn?. Kratos budou zrejme patrit k tomu lep??mu. Tenhle materi?l vy?el sice u? v roce 1999 ,ale nyn? je znovu vydan? s jedn?m nov?m songem, kter? m? zrejme uk?zat dal?? smerov?n? kapely. Co me hned pri prvn?m poslechu pote?ilo je zvuk, kter? je na hodne dobr? ?rovni a smele mu?e konkurovat sv?m z?padn?m souputn?kum. S hudbou je to tak na pul. Kratos dok??ou vykouzlit velmi zaj?mav? melodie a momentky, ale trp? i znacnou d?vkou kli?ovitosti to se ov?em d? skousnout. Jenom dle m?ho n?zoru by jim mnohem v?c slu?el zpev v rodn? rumun?tine, kter? by kapelu zahalil jistou d?vkou tajemna a mystiky, ale co naplat anglictina proste let?. Posledn? a ji? zm?nen? novinkov? song Reverse Effect je oproti zbytku alba ?plne nekde jinde a posouv? hranice samotn? kapely k mnohem lep??mu hudebn?mu vyj?dren? tak?e jsem celkem zvedavej na nejak? nov? CD. Zarit? fanou?ek doom metalu si to svoje v Kratos urcite najde a nakonec i pro me jsou vcelku dobrou kapelou!!!

This band comes from Romania and is playing Gothic Metal. It is formed back in 1996 and after many acts they have managed to record 2 releases. This ? new ? version of ? looking behind the mirror ? '99 has one bonus track ? Reverse Effect ? (2002) and plus some media info. To tell you the truth I am always looking for some intensity and aggressiveness in one metal band. So Kratos as many other doom/gothic metal bands cannot give me that feeling. They aren't in my field of interest. I always find this kind of bands interesting for relaxing after a hard day, maybe because I do not need to think about their riffs or drum parts. Anyway, Kratos are using keyboards as a background and deep male vocals with appearance of female vox, also. Some parts of their songs are reminding me of some medieval music which is interesting to listen. The guys have new material and are seeking for some serious label to release their stuff.