Album Review - Cryptopsy "An Insatiable Violence"

No rest for the wicked that are the members of the Montreal based extreme metal outfit Cryptopsy. Just twenty-one months after dropping the Juno Award winning As Gomorrah Burns, Cryptopsy re-emerges from the darkness to unleash their ninth full-length album, An Insatiable Violence. Will they continue to dominate, or will they stumble under the weight of the hype?

 

If you thought Gomorrah had a lot of groove, then An Insatiable Violence takes that metric fuck ton of groove, multiplies it exponentially by a thousand and drops the biggest groove bomb on the listener. The groove-soaked tremolo riffs fire off at a blinding pace, hitting the listener with wave after wave of auditory punishment. Christian Donaldson not only knocked this thing out of the park with his guitar work, but also with the production. This album sounds massive and his attention to detail is impeccable. Not to be outshined, the rhythm section of Oli Pinard and Flo Mounier add to this claustrophobic auditory assault with pounding bass lines and skull crushing blast beats. I really enjoyed being able to hear Oli’s bass lines throughout the entirety of the album. Albums like this need the bass to be heard and not buried in the mix. Vocalist Matt McGachy has outdone himself again both vocally and lyrically. His lows have continued to improve, and his enunciation of the lyrics are damn near flawless. The concepts he came up with for this album and the last are about relevant things in the current world. He uses these messages to heed a warning to the listeners about the pitfalls of the internet and social media, something all of us can relate to.

 

While much of this album is at warp speed, such as singles “Until There’s Nothing Left” and “Dead Eyes Replete”, it is the track “The Art of Emptiness” that really stood out from the crowd for me. It starts with a more mid paced tempo and raspy, near spoken word vocals before speeding up a bit. There is even a blackened riff that creeps in and out of the song throughout that I really dug. A track like this was needed to give listener’s a reprieve and catch their breath a bit.

We also must give a mention to the incredible art for this album. The album art is a painting done by the late Martin Lacroix, who was a former vocalist for Cryptopsy. What a great way to celebrate the life of a former member by immortalizing him and his art on the cover of the new album!

 

To circle back to the questions I asked earlier, I can sincerely answer that this new album is a step up from As Gomorrah Burns. It’s tighter, cleaner, faster and heavier than its predecessor. This band has really hit their stride now. They say they aren’t slowing down anytime soon, so I say jump on the Cryptopsy train now, before it runs you over! 

- The Metal Architect