CRYPTOPSY

Unspoken King

Century Media (2008)

by Facemelter

 

Hearing Cryptopsy's "Slit Your Guts" in the late '90's for the first time almost made me crap my pants.  I had never heard anything like it before.  The incredible stops and starts.  The brutal sound.  The chaotic musicianship.  These crazy Quebec natives took death metal to a whole new  level along with the likes of Necrophagist, Dying Fetus and Origin.  Drummer Flo Mournier is heralded (although not enough) as one of the best in his field.  This guy is sick. Like a surgeon's scalpel, his playing slices clean and opens up the ugly box.  The word precision keeps coming to mind.  Listen to this record to get my meaning.

 

"Worship Your Demons" starts the disc, crushing and pummeling like the Cryptopsy of old.  Likewise for the next two tracks although the songs begin to get a bit more involved and complex.    Track four, "Bemoan The Martyr" is when unknowing fans will possibly start crapping THEIR pants.  Vocalist number three in the Cryptopsy timeline truly makes his presence felt here with --Are you sitting down?--Clean vocals!!  I know, I know, it's preposterous.  Crazy even.  But it works.  Matt McGachy growls, screams and shrieks just as effectively (if not moreso) than Lord  Worm and that other guy did, but he also adds a whole new dimension and allows the band to expand their dynamics twenty-fold.  I was skeptical too at first but give it a few listens.  It works. Real good.  When the sound expands, so does the fan base.  McGachy's powerful, melodic pipes on top of this machine gun factory band can only mean that old school thrashers AND new school fans (of As I Lay Dying, Children Of Bodom, In Flames) alike will be drawn to The Unspoken King.  The militaristic yet eerie vibe of black metal is also often present as are the crunchy grooves that satiate Suffocation, Throwdown and Pantera fans.

 

Cryptopsy has undoubtedly had considerable influence on today's deathcore scene and much of the technical death and math metal of the last decade.  Some of the songs on this record will be studied by jazz musicians and Berklee kids.  However, most of the people that actually buy this disc probably own a few Cannibal Corpse cds already and at least one Dillinger Escape Plan or Botch disc.  Ok, maybe not Botch.  You get my point.