Review Summary: Celestial progress.
Out of all the vast array of metal subgenres, thrash is probably one of the Big Four (a moniker made famous by thrashers anyway) and arguably one of the least-evolved since its inception. In a lot of ways, thrash metal is the most zygotic form of metal, some of the oldest hard music with its bloodline running directly into black and death metal. It’s almost a thing of honor to make old school thrash, pizza-and-beer metal about zombies and nuclear war, too pure a morph to be messed with too hard. In many cases, bands considered “progressive” thrash get there by adding more “modern” death and black metal elements. Thrash really is seemingly the base form of heavy metal, and changing even a few aspects changes the whole entirely.
This doesn’t stop Cryptosis from trying to tether the style of technical speed-thrash that powered their debut into a style that moves the band forward, away from such over-explored territories. At the end of the day every new genre of metal is some mutagenic combination of other existing genres, and at this stage Cryptosis have bubbled forth a form of melodic death-thrash but in remarkably different proportions than one might expect from that series of words.
It’s immediately apparent from the swirling and malignant riffs of “Faceless Matter” that this is a different beast from Cryptosis’ first offering,
Bionic Swarm. While still hiding technical wiring underneath, the meat of the song is melodic yet hefty, held aloft by choral keywork. The sense here is no longer as ferocious as it is massive, the vocals of Laurens Houvast shifted from a manic snarl to a soaring, raspy roar that matches perfectly with the newly stormy aesthetics. “Ascending”, which opens with a sheerly melodeath riff interwoven with eerie keys,which are thus far a tasteful addendum to the freshened sound of Cryptosis, features what can only be described as a chorus – “Ascending to the clouds / extending me // ascending to the clouds / unending me” (I’m comfortable calling this a chorus both because of its repetitive melodic position in the song, but also because it’s been stuck in my head for three days).
After melting through interlude “Motionless Balance”, Cryptosis enter the back half of the record leaning heavily into their new influences. “Reign of Infinite” definitely draws from the Gothenburg area of tonality, sounding for all the world like the best
At the Gates song in decades, whereas “Absent Presence” showcases an even more pensive and ponderous slow side, featuring rhythmic chugging while mournful keys take the high melodic road. On “In Between Realities” the bionic thrash returns, still spurred by keys and a squelchy synthesizer to fill out the rough edges. Here Cryptosis do seem the most comfortable, back to high horsepower riffs charging shrieking forward, yet the distinct flavor difference is still unmistakably present while the solo sweeps across the sky rather than rip through it.
Overall Cryptosis seem to have managed their intentions with
Celestial Death with surprising grace, moving styles so quickly and without fear in a genre so attuned with its origins. It may be interpreted as erasure or moving away from the sounds that made their debut so exciting, but the band make sure to adhere to their own flavor that maintains throughout both records, a sonic signature that now only sounds more like a siren’s call than a disaster siren.
