Two years on from the JUNO award-winning As Gomorrah Burns after a near 11-year absence, Montreal-natives and Death Metal heavyweights Cryptopsy release their ninth studio album, An Insatiable Violence. This album is a serious contender for their best yet across their 31-year discography.
Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence
Release Date: Out Now
Words: Matty Hunter
For Extreme Metal fans, Cryptopsy require no introduction. Bursting onto the scene in 1994 with Blasphemy Made Flesh and 1996’s None So Vile, those two records are regarded as two of the great Death Metal albums of all time and clear genre staples.
Cryptopsy have enjoyed a productive and eventful few years with their current lineup of Matt McGachy, Christian Donaldson, Oli Piniard and the ever-present Flo Mounier, being the first Metal band to play in Saudi Arabia to killer tours the highlights for the Canadians, most recently on a European leg with Decapitated, Warbringer and Carnation.
2008’s attempt at breaking into the mainstream with the Deathcore-like The Unspoken King is long in the past.
An Insatiable Violence is not only ferocious and intense with that signature Cryptopsy sounding that Death Metal aficionados love, but it has a killer melodic sound across the record, with catchy riffs and their best production yet, thanks to guitarist and producer Christian Donaldson.
The band have not forgotten their roots from over three decades ago, with the brutal technical sound that the early classic records had but with cleaner mixing and instrumentals. This album explores the band’s toxic relationship with social media and the digital age, and the lyricism does that well.
The album has eight tracks, with the full album clocking in at just over half an hour, at 33 minutes. The opening track, The Nimis Adoration, is a full-blast start and a sign of what is to come as McGachy screams high and low across the track. Mounier relentlessly blasts away on his drum kit and mesmerising riffs from Donaldson and Piniard all come together for a killer opening number.
Until There’s Nothing Left leaves no stone unturned with impressive bellowing screams throughout and some of the best drum work on the whole album. Dead Eyes Replete is probably my favourite on the record, as a four-minute plus in-your-face track with a barrage of guitars and dark guttural vocals.
Fools Last Acclaim is another killer number with catchy riffs throughout and is a true headbanger. The Art of Emptiness showcases McGachy’s false chord singing skill excellently, and I can see it being a real crowd-favourite once the band hit the stage touring this album.
Our Great Deception opens with a beautiful sole, soft guitar track but, post that, it has no grace, is sheer brutality and has a stupidly good breakdown to conclude the final 40 seconds of the track.
The penultimate track, Embrace the Nihility, includes the album’s only feature as former vocalist Mike DiSalvo shows he still has it, whilst Flo Mounier’s speedy and thunderous drumming on this one shows for me why he is one of the best in tech death. The closing track, Malicious Needs, is an excellent finisher and clocks in at nearly six minutes of pure brutality.
“When writing An Insatiable Violence, we focused on creating a far more digestible Cryptopsy record,” the band said. “We did this by adding more groove sections, more melodic moments and allowed the musical passages to breathe a bit more than on our previous releases.
“Whatever we do nowadays, we always take extreme care to honour the band’s legacy. It is extremely important to us. But at the same time, we never want to repeat ourselves. We strive to be loyal to our sound while constantly evolving. It’s a fine balance between up-keeping the legacy and remaining relevant.
“Another huge aspect that we focused on while crafting this record was introducing a sense of dread and malaise to the songs. We wanted people to feel disoriented and dirty after listening to it. We are extremely proud of what we have created and can’t wait for everyone to have the chance to experience it!”
Cryptopsy’s An Insatiable Violence is a serious contender as their best-ever album, with crisp production quality, unbelievable instrumental work, and the brutal no-holds-barred sound that Death Metal fans, new and old, have come to love with the Canadian heavyweights.
They are well and truly unstoppable, and the sky seems the limit.
Cryptopsy released An Insatiable Violence last Friday via Season of Mist. You can order the album here. You can chat with Cryptopsy about their new album during next week’s Reddit AMA – An Insatiable Violence Reddit AMA. r/Metal. Thursday, June 26 @ 18 CEST.
