Cryptopsy's second studio album has long been considered their masterpiece. All of the signature sounds are there. The crushingly brutal guitar riffs. The hollow sounding snare drums and the lightning fast double bass drums. But the real signature sound of this era of Cryptop comes with the band's vocalist, Lord Worm. The sounds he can make with his voice on this album are incredible. From the album's first track, "Crown Of Horns" (no, the monster sound at the start is not him) the listener will hear Lord Worm do things from high-pitched screams to deep gutteral growls.
Cryptopsy
Lord Worm : vocals
Jon Levasseur : lead and rhythm guitars
Eric Langlois : bass
Flo Mournier : drums and backing vocals
This album has long been considered by many fans of extreme music to be one of the greatest death metal/grind albums of all time. There aren't really many standout tracks on the album and there are no weak points whatsoever. Some of the more well known tracks such as "Slit Your Guts" and "Phobophile" are some of the albums best tracks but lesser known tracks like "Lichmistress" are almost equally good. The album is not long, but an average length for an album in it's genre. Despite only having 8 songs, Cryptopsy make their artistic statement the short 30 minutes of music that is "None So Vile". In the track, "Phobophile", the band use a piano intro which is soft, and sad sounding. After the piano, the band use some guitar feedback and build it up with a bass riff. After hearing the previous five songs, the lister expects the band to keep building it into a typically heavy Cryptopsy song, however, the band pull out another surprise, messing with the listener's brain and proving that Death Metal, as dumb as the sounds may be to a first time listener, is much more than "just noise".
For a drummer who is interested in hearing good technique and lightning fast parts, Flo Mounier's drumming on this album is some of the best heard in modern music. His snare's sound excellent from the minute they hit the listener in the face at the start of "Crown of Horns" to the end of the album at "Orgiastic Disembowlment". The guitars are excellent with some incredibly heavy riffing, best heard on songs like "Benedectine Convulsions". There is an odd solo here are there and some very crazy sounds like on the track "Crown of Horns". The bass in the album is excellent and is given a good part in the music. It isn't mixed too low to hear. The bass parts in songs like "Graves of the Fathers" sounds like the bass is being smacked against a brick wall. In "Phobophile", the bass is used to great effect to help build up the song. This album is an essential for anyone who enjoys extreme music. This album is almost universally accepted as one of the greatest death/grind albums ever and is said to be the greatest death metal album ever by a considerable amount of fans. Whatever the case, this is a brilliant album and is essential for anyone interested in extreme music or anyone wanting to hear good guitar work, drumming or bass parts.
Pros
- Brilliant instrument work
- Amazing vocals
- Excellent, crushing riffs
- Some diversity; not just noise
Cons
- Being extremely nit picky, some listeners may not like the fact that the vocals aren't able to be understood.
FINAL RATING: 5/5
