Cryptopsy

Published: 3 Sep 2024

Blasphemy Made Flesh

Blasphemy Made Flesh Album Cover

An extremely straightforward but extremely effective Brutal Death Metal album. Its super abrasive in its sound, with the dissonant guitar and percussive drumming (there’s an amazing snare featured) providing the manic energy and chaos, while the bass underpins everything to keep the music from spiralling out of control. All while vocalist Lord Worm makes some of the most unspeakable, disgusting, inhuman shrieks, howls and grunts.

Now it does it drag a bit? Yes, that’s partly down to the nature of the genre, and partly not enough solos or musical accents to make every song individually memorable (something that None So Vile does well in spaces) but the opening run is flawless and rivals anything and everything Cryptopsy would ever release.

Best tracks: Defenestration, Abigor, Open Face Surgery, Gravaged (a Cryptopsy), Memories of Blood, Pathological Frolic

None So Vile

None So Vile Album Cover

Takes all the quality that made Blasphemy Made Flesh so good and so brutal, and sprinkles in enough flash (e.g. a cool bass lick, a piano intro etc.) to really enhance the brutality and turn a plain strong BDM record into an astonishingly good one.

Best tracks: Crown of Horns, Slit Your Guts, Graves of the Fathers, Benedictine Convulsions, Phobophile, Orgiastic Disembowelment

Whisper Supremacy

Whisper Supremacy Album Cover

Any album following on from None So Vile is always going to be an uphill struggle, doubly so with the departure of vocalist Lord Worm.

Now to Cryptopsy’s credit, this is not meant to be None So Vile “part 2”, the music is a lot more technical & rhythmically dense - and this is simultaneously a step forward and backward. There’s lots of good riffs, ideas and musical passages here, but its all far too much and everything flies by without much to grab on to making for a tiring listen. New vocalist Mike DiSalvo may not be my favourite with his hardcore stylings, but he’s the least of the problems here.

Best tracks: Cold Hate, Warm Blood

And Then You’ll Beg

And Then You'll Beg Album Cover

Cryptopsy continue to throw everything technical at the wall and see what sticks, with another relative grab bag of highly technical death metal. Unfortunately, the results are more of the same from Whisper Supremacy, but with diminishing returns and weaker results.

Best tracks: Back to the Worms

Once Was Not

Once Was Not Album Cover

Lord Worm is back! …but the band are quite far away from where they started, and the results are mixed. Its technical as usual, but both the mixing (the over-loud drums taking precedence) and performances (sounding a lot more frenetic and chaotic) give it some echoes of early Cryptopsy? However its clearly different enough to be its own thing - its still highly technical and there’s plenty of indulgent and off-beat segues and interludes that are a double-edged sword. Its memorable, but unsure if it all add ups to a coherent artistic package, so to speak.

Best tracks: The Pestilence That Walketh in Darkness (Psalm 91: 5-8)

The Unspoken King

The Unspoken King Album Cover

I’ve not really delved into the musical realm of Deathcore, so cannot make much comment about the quality of this album relative to its genre. I can however comment relative to Cryptopsy’s discography, and plainly state that this is categorically their worst album. An excruciating listen.

Best tracks: N/A

Cryptopsy (Self-titled)

Cryptopsy (Self-titled) Album Cover

A return to form? Well, somewhat. This sounds more like a defensive self-titled album to arrest a slump, harking back to the DiSalvo era and giving it a lick of paint and more modern production. Its much improved and much more ‘Cryptopsy’, and while I find it to be a little generic and flatline, its enjoyable enough to carry through its 34-minute runtime.

Best tracks: Two-Pound Torch

As Gomorrah Burns

As Gomorrah Burns Album Cover

Not exceptional, but feeling far more positive on the album over the previous self-titled. The time between albums has paid off, and Cryptopsy are sounding re-energised and playing to their strengths they still have. Its a fun, brief and beefy slab of Brutal Death Metal that does what it needs to. Is it going to dethrone the classics? No, but at this point there needs to be a shift in expectations, and this is certainly on of the better modern Cryptopsy album out there.

Best tracks: Lascivious Undivine, In Abeyance