Cryptopsy
Cryptopsy


4.5
superb

Review

by Subrick USER (48 Reviews)
September 12th, 2012 | 318 replies


Release Date: 2012 | Tracklist

Review Summary: A return to (sheer madness in musical) form...

Cryptopsy alienated a very good chunk, if not most, of their old school fanbase when they released The Unspoken King in mid-2008. With a new, crooning clean singer and taking many cues from the deathcore genre, such as breakdowns and more simplistic song structures, many were put off by the admittedly not very good songwriting and frankly awful vocals. Some even cried the familiar metalhead cry of "you sold out!" that so many fans of this style like to shout, although in this instance they actually had some backing. For me personally, I wasn't quite as pissed off as many others were, and there were actually a couple songs on the album I genuinely liked. When compared to the legendary beast that is None So Vile however, the album just melts in your hand like a dyslexic M&M. Now four years, two new bassists, and the return of original guitarist Jon Levasseur later, Cryptopsy have released their seventh full length album, simply titled Cryptopsy. And goddamn if it isn't a return to form.

Once you get past the awful album cover and the quite frankly retarded song titles (Damned Draft Dodgers? Really?) and get to the actual music, you will find that Cryptopsy have injected back into their sound what made them famous to begin with: spastic, furious, insane death metal. Gone are the Linkin Park-esq clean vocals and the chuggariffic breakdowns, replaced by sheer madness in musical form. While not on the same visceral level as Blasphemy Made Flesh or None So Vile, musically this record is a sleek, styled throwback to the days of Whisper Supremacy, right down to the odd soft jazz break here and there. The return of Jon Levasseur can be seen as the reason for this, but I personally give a fair amount of credit to the band's former bassist/guitarist Youri Raymond. I'm not sure how much of the record he had a hand in writing (the only song he is known to explicitly had a hand in writing is The Golden Square Mile), but with all the talk he had when he was in the band of removing the TUK elements of their sound and teaching Matt McGachy how to sound actually brutal (more on him later), I'm confident that he influenced this record in a very positive manner. Longtime bassist Eric Langlois has been replaced on this album with newcomer Olivier Pinard, who fills the role of bass-master extraordinaire wonderfully. The bass on this album is one of the strong points, being very high in the mix and more than just following the rhythm guitar. Christian Donaldson holds down the fort sufficiently as rhythm to Jon Levasseur's lead, and also does a good job as the record's producer and mixer.

Then we have the aforementioned Matt McGachy on vocals. He was easily the biggest problem with The Unspoken King besides the mediocre songwriting; while his normal high pitched shriek was sufficient, his growls and hardcore shouts got tiring very fast, and his clean singing flat out sucked. On this album however he sounds like a force to be reckoned with. All those lessons with Youri have definitely helped, as he not only sounds like a monster on this record but he sounds like a monster that will tear out your unborn child and snack on it Anthropophagous style. Lastly we have one of the kings of extreme metal drummer, the hyperblasting master known as Flo Mounier. As with every Cryptopsy record, even The Unspoken King, Flo beats the *** out of his drum kit as if it gave him a warm beer, weaving in every possible accent and polyrhythm and 280 BPM blast beat to leave the listener sitting there in awe. As a drummer myself, the drumming on a record is usually the first thing I pay attention to when I turn on a new song. Flo's drumming to me has always been the key piece of the Cryptopsy puzzle, and without him that special something that makes Cryptopsy what it is can't really be complete.

In a time when legendary bands are making records that completely defy everything that people loved about them in the first place (Morbid Angel's Illud Divinum Insanus, Queensryche's Dedicated to Chaos, etc.), Cryptopsy, a band that had themselves created a record that repudiated everything about them that people originally fell in love with them for, have made an excellent throwback to the "good old days" as some would call them, making a manic, at times schizophrenic (see Red Skinned Scapegoat's soft jazz break and Damned Draft Dodgers' 7 seconds of elevator music) piece of death metal madness. Despite being a bit on the short side at a little under 35 minutes, that's more than made up for with what we get. A lot of bang for your buck indeed. Cryptopsy have been redeemed.



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user ratings (545)
3.5
great


Comments:Add a Comment 
mindleviticus
September 12th 2012


10595 Comments


Review's good. Have a mod merge it with the actual album.

Solisis
September 13th 2012


371 Comments

Album Rating: 1.5

lol

Subrick
September 13th 2012


48 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

I didn't realize I put it under Other until after I posted it. If any mods see this, do indeed merge this review with the actual album.

Wizard
September 13th 2012


20564 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

This is still bad despite what people are considering "a return to their roots". Well written review, I just don't agree. They still fuck around with too much deathcore than I can handle (which isn't alot on here but it's enough). I think they tried to capture how tight they were on Whisper Supremacy and really fuck it up.

ShadowRemains
September 13th 2012


28060 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

this isn't good

Hyperion1001
Emeritus
September 13th 2012


27101 Comments


yeah this blows

Insurrection
September 13th 2012


24844 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

nah

mindleviticus
September 13th 2012


10595 Comments


Why the fuck is this an entirely new album?

ViralOblivion
September 13th 2012


7679 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Unspoken King was so awful don't expect much from this

MO
September 13th 2012


24113 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

will check out but not expecting anything major. those fuckin' vox are just atrocious, along with other crap I heard from

the two tunes they released

Insurrection
September 13th 2012


24844 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

what are you saying darth

DarkSideOfLucca
September 13th 2012


18527 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

I don't know if it's because 2012 kind of sucks for DM (the only release I love from this year is Torture) but I actually kind of really like this album, minus the vocals which sound like fucking bullshit. If they wanted to go back to their roots, they should have not kept this douchebag scenester as the frontman.

bloozclooz
September 13th 2012


1770 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

darkside bro the vocalist didn't do shit to the bands direction. he came onto the band after the previous album had already been written, and Flo was like yo bitch do some cleans for me

DarkSideOfLucca
September 13th 2012


18527 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Well, Unspoken King had roughly zero redeeming qualities imo, I was more referring to this album. The vocals are too shitty for the brutal sound they wanted to capture for this release, and for the last album they were just generally the worst vocals of all time (clean and growls).

Insurrection
September 13th 2012


24844 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

the first three songs on tuk are really good

Insurrection
September 13th 2012


24844 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

yea their breakdowns just got gayer on the last two albums

Crymsonblaze
September 13th 2012


8232 Comments


bad metal gets worse

Insurrection
September 13th 2012


24844 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

stfu

Crymsonblaze
September 13th 2012


8232 Comments


wwywmtdt?

Insurrection
September 13th 2012


24844 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

cause youre a pussy bitch



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