Cryptopsy - The Unspoken King
Posted on June 26, 2008 at 4:24 pm by admin
Many people can see through the tired excuse of claiming experimentation for selling out. I think everyone saw that coming from about a mile away when Cryptospy stated they were looking for a new vocalist who could also sing, as well as another new member to do samples.
First off, you should know that this still contains many signature Cryptopsy elements, the prevalent being the ultra high-speed d-beats to Flo Mounier, as well as his changing high-speed beatings. There are also some riff-runs and tremolo bursts that are still left over. There is, in actuality, a hinting of experimentation in a sense with songs that are slower than typical Cryptopsy fare, and even the clean singing portions come close to “nice try” territory.
The dreaded term must rear it’s head here, and it’s sell-out, as “The Unspoken King” is full of breakdowns either of the single-note variety, or very close to. Also of note are the attempts to hardcore the action with simple chords running up and down during slow moments as a more traditional style of hardcore breakdown. The guitar solos tend to come much closer to the melody of Sweden now rather than the melodic soloing we’re used from Alex Auburn, and there’s a few moments where the riffs are replaced by Swedish harmonies…
The clean singing doesn’t work well in Cryptopsy’s favour due to the act that they built slower and lighter sections to fit under the vocals, although the band did resist the attempt to go right for sing-along choruses. It’s those same vocals that are a mixed blessing, as Matt McGachy is actually in top form, with harsh barking in a very wide range and perfect pronunciation during some particularly difficult long sentences with many words being stuffed into a short space. His singing as well is also spot-on, being right on key and as soulful as possible. Unfortunately, his rough shout fits more with modern metal bands, and doesn’t have a traditional tone to fit with old-school death metal.
I’m not quite the same as many other death metal fans. I do believe that the genre does need people to come along and push the genre forward to help keep it alive, and an older, large band is actually the perfect candidate for such an outing. Experimenting with something that is as well-trodden as metalcore in general has become was a rather poor choice on Cryptopsys part, and something the general public can see through.
Released June 24th, 2008
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Century Media at MySpace
Buy this album at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
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