CRYPTOPSY: The Unspoken King

Released: May 26, 2008

Jesus jumping fucked-up Christ! What the fuck is this supposed to be? Cryptopsy has never seemed to me to be a band that has really lived up to their reputation, but there's no way I was expecting this. Even though I've never been a huge fan, I picked up the differences right away. Firstly, it wasn't quite as stupidly chaotic and technical as usual. Then there was the vocals. Worm's bloodcurdling and occasionally terrifying utterances are gone, since he has now been replaced by some whiny, shrieky generic metalcore guy. Still, despite what was quite obviously a shift, The Unspoken King gets underway all right if you can accept the considerable dumbing-down of their previously overwhelming technicality. And the much-vaunted female keyboardist has no impact at all, because it's almost like she doesn't exist outside of photo shoots.

Then "Bemoan the Martyr" came on and I sat up in my chair wondering what the hell I was listening to, because it sounded like someone had switched it for Linkin Park. I even ejected the CD from the computer to check if I was still listening to Cryptopsy. Apparently, I was. It was in moment I realised the truth. For some unfathomable reason, this band has suddenly gone from crushing technical brutal death metal to half-arsed, unimaginative deathcore. If that track wasn't bad enough (and it is), The Unspoken King just gets worse from then on. "Leach" starts out as what can only be described as a cliched thrash track and then somewhere in the middle morphs into something that Avenged Sevenfold would have thrown away. But they save the worst til last. Trust me when I tell you that the last three minutes of "Bound Dead" sounds like Chester Bennington getting together with Disturbed and destroying everything you every loved about heavy metal.

As I said at the start of this review, I wasn't really ever that much of a Crytopsy fan, so for me to be disgusted by what they've turned into, I can't even imagine how gutted people who liked them must feel. I don't know about contemplating regicide, but a lot of death metal fans will be contemplating Mounier-cide after this travesty.

1. Worship Your Demons
2. The Headsmen
3. Silence the Tyrants
4. Bemoan the Martyr
5. Leach
6. The Plagued
7. Resurgence of an Empire
8. Anoint the Dead
9. Contemplate Regicide
10. Bound Dead
11. (Exit) The Few

Rating: 5%

CRYPTOPSY: None So Live

Released: 2003

I have to admit that sometimes Cryptopsy just sounds to me like there‘s too much going on without anyone actually getting anywhere. The overlapping technical riffs and Flo Mournier’s incredible drumming has made them one of the world’s state-of-the-art extreme metal bands, but to me they sometimes sound like just a muddle of ideas without direction. Nonetheless, whether you’re a committed fan or not, if you’ve ever wondered if they can pull it all off live, None So Live shows that Mournier at least can do everything on stage that he does in the studio.

Live albums are questionable at the best of times; over the course of this one’s twelve tracks the vocals and drums are so far at the fore of the mix that they virtually obliterate the rest of the band. This is but one of the album’s shortcomings, and indeed I’d be rather surprised if Cryptopsy’s fans didn’t feel somewhat ripped off by this obvious obligational release. Apart from the crap sound, the track-listing is pretty dubious. Out of the album’s twelve tracks, one is merely the crowd cheering before the band comes on stage and one is a drum solo. Cryptopsy is probably the only band on the planet today that can actually get away with featuring a drum solo on a live album, yet despite Mournier’s abilities on the sticks n’ skins his display here is pretty uninspiring. Thankfully, it’s only short.

Leaving room for only ten actual songs in total, most of which are taken from the first two albums (though “Born Headless” is noticeably absent), None So Live feels incomplete, little more than a stop-gap for the next studio album. Fans will love this; everyone else will most likely think it’s a rip-off.

1. Intro
2. Crown of Horns
3. White Worms
4. We Bleed
5. Open Face Surgery
6. Cold Hate, Warm Blood
7. Phobophile
8. Shroud
9. Grave of the Fathers
10. Drum Solo
11. Defenestration
12. Slit Your Guts

Rating: 45%