DEATH METAL |
STORY TIME | FANBOY | HORROR MOVIES | CONVENTION NEWS | HORRIBLE NEWS |
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The first few times you listen to this album, be sure to look at the sky because its going to go flying right over your head. This third full length from Canadian Death Metal act CRYTPOPSY is an attention span deficit presentation of brutality, constantly shifting gears from fast to lightning quick to speed of light to warp speed. Their previous release, NONE SO VILE, was in itself an instant classic. For CRYPTOPSY 98, though, exit one vocalist (Lord Worm) and enter a replacement vocalist (Mike DiSalvo, ex-INFESTATION) and new guitarist Miguel Roy. Lord Worm was quite proficient at indecipherable low vocals and high-pitched screaming. DiSalvo brings more coherent vocals to the table, not as brutal but still appropriately rough. Could they have chosen better? Quite possibly. They didnt play it safe, and may turn off some fans. But those fans will have to be incredibly shallow, because the intensity of WHISPER SUPREMACY levels their previous efforts musically. And vocally, Mike is able to offer his own brand of aggression. The high points of CRYPTOPSY are many, with the focus on three key members - guitarist Jon Levasseur, drummer Flo Mounier, and bassist Eric Langlois, the NONE SO VILE alumni. Levasseur's patented
zany riffs especially ornament stand-out tracks Loathe and
Depths You've Fallen. Langlois replaced a gifted bassist on the last album and offered impressive playing especially on Slit Your Guts and Benedictine Convulsions. He manages to sound like hes right at home with the complexity of the album, at odd intervals being the only instrument playing (as on the split second on Emaciate). What keeps CRYPTOPSY from falling prey to typical talent show antics is the utter lack of pretension in their music. No little keyboard/ synthesizer asides or clean guitar playing interludes. They keep it fast and thoughtful, on the aforementioned tracks as well as White Worms and Cold Hate, Warm Blood (with its misleading opening melody). WHISPER is half an hour of labyrinthian brutality, one of this years best and one of the elite in the history of brutal death. 5 Perplex Skulls. This review copyright 1998 E.C.McMullen Jr. |
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