Cryptopsy - None So Vile

By Dane Prokofiev. In hindsight, Cryptopsy is one of those bands that never managed to outdo themselves. When None So Vile dropped on the extreme metal world in 1996, it cracked it right down to its misanthropic, molten core and remolded one of the most sonically extreme metal sub-genres ever: technical death metal.

By Dane Prokofiev.


In hindsight, Cryptopsy is one of those bands that never managed to outdo themselves. When None So Vile dropped on the extreme metal world in 1996, it cracked it right down to its misanthropic, molten core and remolded one of the most sonically extreme metal sub-genres ever: technical death metal. It became an instant classic, and set a new benchmark for what it means to be simultaneously crazily proficient in one’s instrumental skills, musically unconventional and viciously sick in the head.

As the album title aptly suggests, the music contained within the innocent-looking disc is pure vileness. In particular, the greasy, throbbing bass lines will slap your ears as hard as a boa constrictor’s fat tail would and leave you dazed and quivering in masochistic joy.

The highly irregular time signatures, breakneck tempos and frequent syncopation constantly make the tearing onslaught of cheek-ripping noise viciously entertaining. The music often stops suddenly for a very brief moment, only to accelerate to 666 mph in a split second and then decelerate to 333 mph or so, like a Satanic and bipolar version of the Acura NSX Concept car (the sexy beast we see Tony Stark drive away in during the closing scene of The Avengers); and the whole process does not necessarily repeat itself in this exact order. As a result, ribcage-cracking grooves are created, and they just keep coming and crushing in various musical patterns.

Eargasmic guitar solos (check out 3:05 to 3:32 in “Slit Your Guts”) are also present, and not only do they provide structural balance to the groove-dominated songs, they will make your neck muscles convulse and slam your head back and forth rapidly between the surface of your table and the wall behind until your brain bashes itself into a squishy grey mess. Basically, Cryptopsy was the Insect Warfare of technical death metal; there is never a dull moment on this album.

And we are not done with the “never a dull moment” part; there is even a beguiling piano introduction in the track “Phobophile”! After lulling you into a false sense of security with its beauteous melancholy, the piano exits to make way for something slick and sinister. A bass guitar solo slithers in to wind around your neck, before constricting suddenly to snap your neck as effortlessly as Hercules would with a dry twig in a sudden burst of corpse-grinding noise.

None So Vile is a timeless metal record that perfectly captures the scabrous spirit of extreme underground death metal, and it is also a testament to the tenet that death metal can never only settle for fast – only faster! Cryptopsy’s later works do not surpass this masterpiece, and they will probably never be able to produce such an important record ever again. Whatever chance they had of having a go at this challenge disappeared with Lord Worm’s second departure from the band in 2007.

Cryptopsy - Cryptopsy

Review by Dane Prokofiev.

Artwork and Design by Mircea Gabriel Eftemie

The first thought that jumps to mind is not a positive one: Why in blazes has the legendary Canadian tech-death band, Cryptopsy, chosen such a hippie piece of album artwork? And it inevitably leads to another negative (or positive, depending on how you see it) thought: Did Cryptopsy spend too much of their record money on beer? C’mon, it is not like they play the kind of metal that encourages people to live a laidback lifestyle (only bands like Red Fang can be excused for such a lack of personal discipline). If anything, the kind of metal they play is often interpreted as being the embodiment of humanity’s physical and mental imperfections.

As the group’s seventh and first independently released full-length album, 2012’s “Cryptopsy” does not take anything further in terms of sonic extremity; unless one considers that the departure from the deathcore sound of the previous album is extreme in its own way. This is unexpected, considering that bands (and especially those of a legendary status) usually release albums independently in order to pursue a particular sound that no label would be interested in backing. If anything, shouldn’t 2008’s “The Unspoken King”, which was released by Century Media, have been an independent record? And this, released by Century Media?

Regardless, what one gets from this self-titled effort is still quite similar to old Cryptopsy: pummeling grooves, rapid time signature changes, frenzied tempos, grotesque growls, and the idiosyncratic tendency to occasionally break out into a jazzy interlude (“Red-Skinned Scapegoat”).

Still, it is not stupendously fresh in any manner, but that is not to say that it isn’t enjoyable. Amidst the hurricane of precisely-crafted noise, some traditional aspects of death metal can be found, and they will certainly make the ears of older metalheads perk up in nostalgic comfort. Simple pleasures such as that oh-so-delicious guitar shredding that kicks in at the 3-minute mark of “Amputated Enigma”, and the blatant overusing of blast beats are there to anchor the otherwise overwhelmingly technical song-writing.

Apart from the continued absence of Lord Worm and a noticeably sterile production as compared to older albums, this sounds like Cryptopsy returning to form. Why, then, does no label want to take on this born again Cryptian? Only the Cryptian God knows.

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Ophidian I - Solvet Saeclum

Review by Dane Prokofiev.

Cover by Marco Hasmann

The metallic razor-sharp band logo, the polished look of the artwork and its cartoonish depiction of human extinction via the extremely plausible natural disaster of having two planets and possibly a moon or dwarf planet crashing down on what is assumed to be Earth, causing a great fire and igniting rockets to fly up into space and somehow wiping out every human but a serpentine mutant holding a spear all seem to suggest that this album is certain to be the work of a typical modern technical death metal band from a typical European country. Your musical instinct is spot-on about the typical modern technical death metal part, but it is not for the other. Ophidian I come from a country seldom heard being mentioned in metal press: Iceland, despite that they play a brand of technical death metal that is remarkably reminiscent of the kind being peddled by their European and American peers.

They have the technical edge and high-pitched guitar soloing style of Arsis (USA), and a vocalist who does guttural growls just like his peers in Spawn Of Possession (Sweden) and Gorod (France); although ultimately, the brutal vocal style could be an American influence too since it is very similar to Frank Mullen’s vocal style. However, the very European style of having an audible bass guitar line (gasp!) harmonize with a single (or more) electronic guitar motif while being accompanied by rustling drum cymbals in the background can be heard occasionally, with two examples being the introductions to “Mark Of An Obsidian” and “Nadir”. This aspect of Ophidian I’s musical style is most remindful of another European peer, Obscura, and it would certainly do the band good to utilize this heart-thumping motif more frequently. As it stands, their current music sounds up-to-par with the demanding standard of modern technical death metal. All Ophidian I needs is to explore more creative directions, to sound a little less typical in the future.

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General Surgery - A Collection of Depravation

Review by Dane Prokofiev.

Very little can be said about goregrind, and I mean that in a good way. It’s a straightforward sub-genre of extreme metal that sates mankind’s primal urge for violence in an entertaining manner, and the most entertaining goregrind is the kind that is filled with chunky grooves flowing down a putrid stream of incomprehensible noise that brings to mind a waterfall of stale blood littered with severed limbs and slimy, maroon innards. No poetic descriptions or Tolkien imagery necessary, just mindless, ruthless savagery.

Sweden’s General Surgery are a great testament to that hypothesis, and these gore fiends have unleashed a knife-twistingly tasty compilation of THIRTY rare and exclusive tracks that will corkscrew their way through one ear canal and out the other repeatedly for a little over an hour! Brains and skull fragments will splatter the walls, but that is the whole point, right?

While the tracks are technically not new at all, it’s great value for money to have so many of ‘em stacked together for the price of one record. Yes, non-vinyl owners and casual collectors, this compilation was released with you guys in mind (and Relapse’s excuse to earn a quick buck too of course). For optimal listening experience, skip your three daily meals before going under the sanguinary scalpel of this crash course in aural masochism.

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Inverloch - Dusk | Subside

Review by Dane Prokofiev.

Australia’s funeral doom metal band diSEMBOWELMENT have not only reformed under this new cool-sounding name of Inverloch, but have made their return so heavy that you can literally feel walls of sound pressing down on your eardrums when you spin this disc.

As was their style when they were still diSEMBOWELMENT, the music heard in this three-track EP is generally a good balance between foreboding, plodding passages of doom metal and groovy, fast-hitting death metal assaults. While they stated in this interview that this is not supposed to be the case (“It is a totally new band and has no relevance to diSEMBOWELMENT other than having ex-members. New band, new members, new music and new logo.”), the sonic imprints of their diSEMBOWELMENT days can definitely be heard.

For example, that lengthy introduction that takes its time to build up to an audible sound level in opening track “Within Frozen Beauty” is such a funeral doom thing to do. But, the track doesn’t just HMMMMMM, RAAAHHHHHH and alternate between the two states of mind like the other two tracks (a trademark of the death/funeral doom movement pioneered by the band), there's a fast-paced guitar solo from 3:26 to 4:34 too!

Second track “The Menin Road” lumbers along at a typical funeral doom pace, stifling you with crushing riffs and tortured vocals, with Mazziotta providing sparse but atmospheric percussion support, crashing the cymbals to great effect every now and then. It serves as a apt bridge between it and album closer, “Shadows Of The Flame”, leading into the last song of the EP with a chilling silence.

“Shadows Of The Flame” is structurally quite similar to “Within Frozen Beauty”, and while it does surprise one with a sudden burst of death metal aggression right after the chilling silence, it degenerates into mere funeral doom plodding for quite a while before it starts up its engine again with a moderately-paced death metal passage. Keyboards make their haunting presence known, with James whispering in an anguished voice alongside it, matching the level of despondency built up throughout the song with an equally depressive but very human timbre.

As a collection of demo tracks, this short EP may be only slightly over 20 minutes long, but it provides a very tempting glimpse at what Inverloch possibly have to offer in their eventual debut full-length album. Regardless of the name change Inverloch still offer the same old, primitive and carnal breed of doom metal that made the name diSEMBOWELMENT legendary.

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