Review Summary: Yield to the grime that defines us all.
Cadaver Circulation is an oppressive, yet captivating listen right out of the scintillating haunting mirk, inspired only by the vivid despair of death metal's finest. The classic styling of Krypts visceral display of death metal run parallel to the band’s previous works, twisting to offer slight increases of melody. But it’s also important to note that while these Finnish masters haven’t surpassed the like of
Unending Degradation or
Remnants Of Expansion,
Cadaver Circulation isn’t any less of a face-first fall into a world of cavernous death metal. The forlorn wanting of an evil to match the most devilish displacement of human thought has often led the extreme metal community to the most wanted of untoward locales and yet the fleshed out feel to
Cadaver Circulation’s deathly approach to bottomless doom leaves little unimagined.
The explosion of sound that exists simply as “Sinking Transient Waters” quickly crawls towards the trope of collective noise, staying typically in the down-tuned provocations that Krypts fans are already familiar with, but it’s not all blast beats and jagged low end riffing. There’s a sumptuous lead or two before leading listeners into a noxious, and insightful guitar solo. Despite the fact that these leads fight constantly against the wall of Krypts instrumental efforts, there’s a clarity amongst the unforgiving onslaught - at least, until the ominous landscapes stretches vast and longingly into “The Reek Of Loss”. Somehow,
Cadaver Circulation became the bleakest offering Krypts has so far unleashed in a studio format.
In any unguarded moment the swirling, lumbering riffs that permeate throughout the album’s length can become hypnotic, misplacing the angst for melancholy. There’s less focus on the typical need for speed and straightforward intensity, instead offering up pure atmosphere as death metal suffocation. “Mycelium” is a thundering example of Krypts pensive combination of dirge riffing, guttural growls and unobtrusive melody highlighting just how this Finnish display of death has matured from their demo days. It’s not a soundscape all would’ve imagined for a band sitting so very on the cusp of something truly spectacular without ticking each and every box, but they’re heading in the right direction by capitalizing on all the band’s best bits (even if they’re covered completely in filth).
The sensical bludgeoning that
Cadaver Circulation manages to provide however is sometimes at odds within itself. Sure, the brevity of a thirty-seven minute death metal romp usually shows placation to any misgivings of a drawn out, dreary escapade but Krypts 2019 effort could do with a small amount of fleshing out. Tracks like “Vanishing” and “The Reek Of Loss” only hint at what a band like Krypts could do with extending their doom-ier influences and the final moments of “Vanishing” only create a sense of longing. Whether it be the despair and anguish or the cavernous misplacement of cheerier thoughts,
Cadaver Circulation is doubly the album it’s meant to be, without fully achieving the record it
should be. When looking at the sum of all Krypts’ parts, one could imagine the longevity as they recreate a noxious soundscape of hell’s very bowel, because let’s face it… they have not released a bad record as yet. However, it’s clear they haven’t perfected their art just yet.
