Cryptopsy is hungry again.
For their ninth album, An Insatiable Violence, Flo Mounier (drums, Arise from Worms, Tribe of Pazuzu, Vltimas, ex-Nader Sadek), Christian Donaldson (guitar, Mythosis), Matt McGachy (vocals, 3 Mile Scream) and Olivier Pinard (bass, Cattle Decapitation, Akurion, Vengeful, ex-Obvurt) have chosen to sign with Season of Mist.
Unsurprisingly, the album opens with the most virulent and complex brutality, The Nimis Adoration, a track in which the vocalist unleashes as much aggression as the musicians. Blasts and jerky riffs go hand in hand with ranting, enabling a continuous assault that continues right through to Until Theres Nothing Left, where the violence remains as effective as ever in this ocean of technicality. There’s a hint of darkness in the furious riffs, barely slowing down for the harmonics to gain momentum before returning to the savagery also found on Dead Eyes Replete, where we find slightly simpler patterns and an interesting Old School approach. The waves of rage are as explosive as ever, but they take on another dimension as they accelerate once more on Fools Last Aclaim, a track that truly marks this climax of raw violence, with its meticulous production leaving each instrument perfectly in its place. The Art Of Emptiness barely lets us breathe for a few moments, then the composition in turn tramples us underfoot without giving us the slightest chance of respite, but the dark outro also confirms these increasingly melancholy notes, as does the clear intro to Our Great Deception. Saturation soon returns to molest us with its overdriven riffs, but also with some more ethereal harmonics and chaotic moshparts, before returning to their former vocalist Mike DiSalvo (Akurion, Warhorse) on Embrace the Nihility, reinforcing Matt McGachy‘s already omnipresent violence with his own touch. The album already comes to an end with Malicious Needs, the last of the eight tracks, featuring highly-directed drumming that doesn’t hesitate to develop almost martial tones, but also much more soothing passages to create a more than obvious contrast.
Every new Cryptopsy release is great news for the world of Brutal/Tech Death, and An Insatiable Violence is no exception! Fans of the band already know they’ll be won over, and those who haven’t yet will be sooner or later.
95/100
