Metal Dan Vs. “Cryptopsy” by Cryptopsy.

Cryptopsy have been around for a while and despite some fairly large lineup changes from time to time they have managed to stay afloat and release albums relatively consistently. Whether or not the musical quality of these albums has been consistent is another matter entirely and opinions vary greatly from person to person. This time Cryptopsy has released a quality record after the backlash from “The unspoken king”, where the band tried their hand at death core.

It seems like drum extraordinaire Flo Mounier got in touch with something inspirationally sinister during his time in Nader Sadek which last year released the solid “In the flesh” and left with an epiphany that ended in a night of violent killings. As the sun came up he stood framed in a studio doorway, with Jon Levasseur in thrall.  His fellow band members were bashing out jams for their death core successor for “The unspoken king”, this of course was unacceptable and what came next was a rerouting of creative energies to create an extremely solid comeback.

Cryptopsy’s first 2 albums “Blasphemy made flesh” and “None so vile” mixed skilled suffocation worship with jarring technicality. The rabid vocals from “Lord Worm” who to this day is still one of the most incomprehensible death metal vocalists i’ve ever heard, completed a sound that was as noisy as it was enjoyable. Lord worm is not present on this latest outing having left the band in 2007 due to health issues, but new vocalist Matt McGachy puts on a solid performance that sounds less the rabid Lord Worm, and more the standard fare death metal vocal performance that distracts less from the instrumental barrage. Cryptopsy’s self titled album delivers the glory of these early albums in spades.

Flo’s drumming really is expert as usual, Lavasseurs guitar work marks a welcome return to the bands sound palate, and the other band members put in excellent performances to compliment the overall high pedigree of musicianship. The album is not completely like the bands classic albums. There are more melodic bridge parts to break up the chaos of intense riffing that make up the core of all of the songs. These include jazzy interludes played with clean guitars before crushing rhythms come back and wrack the senses with a cacophony of noise. Tasteful breakdowns also compliment some of the songs in ways I could have foreseen myself hating if someone had described this album to me on paper before i’d taken the time to listen to it myself, but all of this is part of the pleasant surprise.

The fact is that I would have never suspected that Cryptopsy had another good album in them. I had stopped following their new album releases for quite some time and even with this record it was only a whim that led me to give it a chance. Nader Sadek’s Facebook page also reminded me of its existence numerous times, so that had some bearing too. The point is that my enjoyment of this album was unexpected, but very few things beat the feeling of satisfaction from the unexpected.

Album is highly recommended.

Preview tracks can be heard at: http://cryptopsy.ca