Cryptopsy An Insatiable Violence CD Review
Cryptopsy
An Insatiable Violence
Season of Mist
Thirty years into their brutal tech death brilliance, we find ourselves once again white knuckling the rosary while Montreal Canada's own Cryptopsy bludgeons everything in their path with surgical precision on their latest release, An Insatiable Violence.
Cryptopsy aren't just responsible for SEVERAL bands within the tech area of death metal, one could argue, quite strongly in fact, that they have perfected it. On this, their ninth album, however, Cryptopsy seem poised to go into another gear. These are some of the fastest tempos they've ever played, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention how flawless and tight the drum phenom Flo Mounier handles it all with relative ease. Arguably the most celebrated Canadian drummer that doesn't carry the last name of Peart, his abilities behind the kit are Olympian. He even adds the odd gravity blast here and there, something he has never done. Flo’s Herculean bashing notwithstanding, what strikes me most here is their nod to slower, groove laden passages as well as melodic passages that allow us to catch our breath before they go into the all gas approach. Again, on a dime.
This approach is used to great effect on “Until There's Nothing Left” and the mammoth chug of the closer “Malicious Needs”. Vocalist Matt McGachy turns in his deepest gutturals yet, as guitarist Christian Donaldson and bassist Oli Pinard also showcase their most informed and tightest syncopated playing to boot. This album picks up where 2023’s When Gomorrah Burns left off but ups the ante exceedingly in a ten-ton brick of heavy and fury. The album's lyrical concepts are also steeped in real life scares, such as our toxic relationship of battling algorithms with social media while they continually divide us and tear individuals apart. We feed the machine, to make it run more effectively and long to be tortured better by it. Cryptopsy’s machine is firing on all cylinders here, and damned if it isn't a lovely feeling to be tortured by something so harnessed and brutally ugly.
-TB