Cryptopsy – S/T

I can’t tell you why, but I have always been intrigued by Quebec.  Even as a 3rd grader, we had to write a report about some other part of the world, and I chose Quebec.  Maybe it’s the idea the smack in the middle of English speaking North America there is this corner of Canada that refuses to let go of the old ways.  They speak French and celebrate their uniqueness.  I actually had the good fortune to live in and around Montreal for a couple of years after I got out of school and it was a dream come true for me.  Still intrigued and still love the place.

And speaking of the old ways, and Quebec, here we have Cryptopsy, from Montreal and getting back to the tried and true that brought them so many fans.  What a beast of an album this is.  Death metal through and through, with some really awesome technical stuff thrown in, this one will really get you moving.  Forget about previous album “The Unspoken King” and previous band personnel on said album.  Jon Levasseur is back and Flo Mounier is still there on the drums.  This is classic Cryptopsy, and a not at all gentle reminder of what these French Canadians are capable of when they are hitting on all cylinders.

I have spoken often of my love of music that gives you an aural pummeling, and I knew within a minute that this album was going to provide just that.  Opening track “Two-Pound Torch” ignites this release, and is one of my personal faves.  The one that really got me going is “Red-Skinned Scapegoat”.  This track is just relentless in presenting riff upon riff from the guitars and some of the more amazing drumming I have heard on any type of release this year.  Absolutely outstanding stuff fellas!

Besides the return to previous form, the one thing I enjoyed the most about this album is that it is death metal through and through, but it also has its touches of technical playing which is absolutely brilliant.  The band really mix it up and keep it from being pure technicality, which can really get old fast, and is mostly some guitar player going “widdly widdly” as fast as he can, but that type of technical death metal has never really done much for me.  This, on the other hand, with all the old school elements of classic death, along with just the right touch of technical playing, is fantastic.  Levasseur and Mounier are really two forces to be reckoned with and they seem to really have a chemistry together that proves they never should have split up in the first place.

This album will come at you like a freight train bearing down on one of those little Smart cars at a railroad crossing.  Except in this case, the train will blow its whistle in warning, but it ain’t slowing down, and if it obliterates the Smart car, oh well.  That is what death metal is about.  You better get out of the way if you can’t handle it.  But if you love it, let that train annihilate you and feel the crushing power tear you apart.

- ODIN

Cryptopsy - None So Vile

 

Why is None So Vile, a 16-year-old release from Qubecois death metal outfit Cryptopsy, indispensible?

I will elucidate this in that most classic and festive of forms, the Christmas death metal recipe:

Ingredients:

1) Horrific and completely unintelligible harshed snarled bellowing from one Lord Worm, an insane(r) version of Lord Byron (who later left the band to become an English teacher);

2) Literate (i.e., clever and non-intelligence-insulting) lyrics, from same Worm's Lord (see Decibel's hall of fame entry piece for None So Vile, which include the gem that the lyrics are "The most artful use of the death growl ever put on record");

3) Drums as athletic and goddamn impossible to even air-play play as Zbigniew Robert Promiński's hits from Behemoth's Evangelion (fuckin' A, Flo Mounier!);

4) Pristine, high-gain guitar tone that's still detuned (all the way to B, a fifth below standard tuning), but with a tone and agility that sounds nearly thrashy in the intricacy of the riffs;

5) AND-- liberally put fucking slap bass in it! Slap bass that serves the music and not just the bassist! And doesn't sound like Infectious Grooves!

Directions:

Leave out in sun to rot. Periodically huff putrescent fumes.

Serving Recommendation:

None So Vile, and death metal in general, "works" or doesn't for the same reasons black metal does: when successfully composed, the music becomes the sonic embodiment of fury-- pure rage, that, for whatever reason, has risen up and now manifests itself physically, like some invisible God of Vengeance.

Death metal isn't about Riffs (though there are a few really good ones here; see below); doom, stoner and sludge metal do those best. Pure, adamantine death metal is about fluid, furious drums backing guitars tuned so low they detonate Richter scales, and which still manage to pale in comparison to the presumably-Satanically-Behemoth'ed, only-through-the-lungs-of-hell vocal sounds emerging glacially slowly, grudgingly, from the underworld that is the distorted voice box of the band's vocalist.

This is that death metal.

Best tracks:

"Graves of the Fathers," which at 1:15 drops this sweet pinch harmonic-based riff with a great drum lick under it, and at 2:15 drops into a fantabulous open B riff and at 3:30 cums some brilliant blast beats;

"Dead and Dripping," pure blurred Picasso-using-blood-as-medium chaos, with a beautiful sweep-picked solo at 1:50, which heralds the actual slowing of the tune into a stupid-good riff at 2:06, and another pure hell scream at 2:41;

"Benedictine Convulsions," which at 3:35 spooges one fantastic lurching drunken riff;

"Phobophile," which starts with a piano interude that sounds like something sweet from an 1980s boy band single-- and which then keeps swaying in and out of tune, as if the Baphomet were clutching vilely and violently at Jordan Knight and company-- it wavers, somehow sadistically and psychedelically, in and out of key... until it then hits, predictably enough, at 0:50 with drums and bass and a deathened shriek-- but what you can't predict is how goose-bump generating this is: the hairs on my fucking neck stood out at this point. (Of course, the stereo was loud as shit, so make your own neuropsychologically-informed conclusions about this.) At 2:44 we get yet another slug riff in B over breath-takingly agile drum licks and a death growl that has started to sound more like the pulse of the Earth hurtling through space at 1041.7 miles per hour-- you know, that daily astronomical miracle you've already gotten used to; and, finally,

"Orgiastic Disembowelment," which, at around 2:15, actually has the chutzpah to swing (in death metal? GTFO!) while it deploys a quick sludge metal Riff (note the capital R) that most sludge bands would write an entire suite around.

This fucker just. Does. Not. Let. Up.

It's 32 minutes of sniper-focused, classically-trained, subtle-yet-unconstrained rage that makes Reign in Blood (an obvious ancestor) look positively geriatric.

This is the soundtrack to the end times/apocalypse/ Armageddon/ Ragnarōk-- and simultaneously also why said eschatology will be #greatestpartyEVAR.

None So Vile has just given me, via rather large if outdated speakers, one wonderful afternoon. It is quite literally massaging my old bitter heart as I absorb its high-Db proclamations.

I am fucking digging this shit. This kicked my ass. And I'm older and tougher than I look.

I recommend you investigate these seemingly-hyperbolic claims yourself.

Now... that's it... go ahead and run-- Run home and cry to mama!

--Horn

Ripple News - FREE STORMING THE GATES...TABARNAK! COMPILATION - MONTREAL'S 2011 METAL SHOWCASE AT CANADIAN MUSIC WEEK

Montreal metal will be storming the gates of Canadian Music Week, March 9th, 2011 in Toronto, ON at The Opera House (735 Queen St. East) for a head banging experience of the city's best upcoming metal talent. A free compilation has been put together showcasing the eight acts performing at Storming The Gates... Tabarnak! with Cryptopsy and Beneath The Massacre leading the charge. To download the compilation Storming The Gates...Tabarnak! Vol 1. please visit this following location.

Dungeonworks Productions & CMW presents:

STORMING THE GATES...TABARNAK!
MONTREAL'S 2011 METAL SHOWCASE
(a Canadian Music Week event):
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 - 6pm - 19+
Where: The Opera House, 735 Queen St. East, Toronto, ON
Tickets $25 available at www.ticketscene.ca and Rotate This
CRYPTOPSY (Century Media Records)
www.myspace.com/cryptopsy
BENEATH THE MASSACRE (Prosthetic Records)
www.myspace.com/btm
FATALITY
www.myspace.com/fatalitythrashfuck

THE CATALYST
www.myspace.com/thecatalystmetal

DISSENSION
www.myspace.com/dissensionmtl

DISGUST
www.myspace.com/disgustmusic

DUSH
www.templeofdush.com & www.myspace.com/templeofdush

SYKODE
www.sykode.com & www.myspace.com/sykode
Sponsored by:

Ticket Scene - www.TicketScene.ca
INKFUSION BAND MERCH - www.inkfusion-band-merch.com
KIAMECODESIGNS - kiamecodesigns@hotmail.com
LABYRINTHE BOUTIQUE - www.labyrintherock.com