Cryptopsy: Classic or Dud?

Would love to see this thread revived. This used to be one of my favorite death metal bands (and Blasphemy and None So Vile are all-time classics, and I did love Whisper Supremacy too). Felt like ...And Then You'll Beg was good too, but a bit of a step down, and didn't really care for Once was Not, and never did wind up hearing Unspoken King.

I recently got the self-titled album, and was pleasantly surprised at the quality. I think I agree with the person (I don't remember who) that said it wasn't a 'classic', but it is quite a good album! To me, it inhabits the space between Whisper Supremacy and Beg. I know not everybody is a fan of that, as it was a little less structured and more indulgent than the BMF/NSV days, which were still technical but a bit more refined when it came to songwriting. But I found myself playing it a lot, and I like the new vocalist.

The interesting thing I find is that in recent years, people now have turned on Lord Worm. I felt like it was hard to get a beat on why he was so great on None So Vile, as his vocals are very far down in the mix, but his vocals on Blasphemy Made Flesh are outright insane, and he useds different voicings throughout it (good use of high and low screams). I just find it weird how there seemed to be a consensus to me that he was a classic, legendary vocalist, and now that consensus seems to have shifted.

My opinion hasn't changed -- I still really dig his vocals on those first two albums. I feel like DiSalvo was the weakest vocalist they ever had, as he didn't fit their death metal sound, but he didn't necessarily detract much either.

I will say their live show disappointed me on the Beg show. I saw them in 2001, and they looked very unenthused, played for less than an hour, and DiSalvo looked like he positively wasn't listening to me when I tried to compliment his band on the admittedly not-very-good set they just played (you know, the laugh people do when they didn't really understand what they were just told and do that to cover up? yeah, that).

unspoken king is p hilarious

I almost wound up buying that album one day because I was at Virgin Megastore (a lil while before it was closing its doors), and was looking for some new metal to buy. And I see this, and the 'listening station' isn't working so I can't preview any of it, so I stumble on the computer screen across a review of it that described it as if it was Gorguts's "Obscura", talking about how progressive and creative the album was. Not a press release, either, this was a review. I wound up not getting it, and it wasn't until later that I found out this album is like universally hated and that they went metalcore.

(listening station was working i mean there were no audio samples of the album)

Just found my copy of Once was Not, which I haven't played in 7 years. going to give it a spin.

erm so far this is way better than I remembered

Ok, now I think I remember what my issue was. The drums are mixed high and the guitars mixed low, and I did most of my music listening in the car back then due to my commute to work.

Giving this a proper listen now, it's not essential like the first two discs, but I'm digging this!

I wrote about Unspoken King (and interviewed Flo Mounier) back in 2009; the story's on my blog now. It's not an awful album; it's just an unexpected move from Cryptopsy.

Yeah I read your article in one of the other threads. I don't really have a huge desire to hear it as the description sounds like something I won't like, but maybe out of curiosity I'll eventually stumble on it.

It's not an awful album

despite what i said upthread about it being hilarious, i agree

i think the untrue status of metalcore/deathcore among metal ppl is 100 percent understandable but also kind of a shame. idk, i just listened to august burns red's leveler which in hindsight is prob my favorite metal record of 2011, and i feel like parts of it would really appeal to a lot of, say, tech death metal ppl

...And Then You'll Beg is a classic imo

I had only been into death metal for like a year and a half or so at that point so it was probably the first death metal release (or one of them) I actually anticipated.

think I even pre-ordered from Amazon, lol

have always had difficulty listening to Blasphemy Made Flesh due to the mix but damned if it doesn't sound a lot better in its Lossless version.

none so vile is awesome. they're playing here next week but i h8 the venue

do they even have lyrics lol

Lord Worm's lyrics can be amazing. And very out there. Every once in a while he throws in something that sounds like a demented Oscar Wilde ("Nature abhors a vacuum; the same can be said of a tomb").

Also whatever all this means:

Touched by Jeqon
the Inciter,
well-rounded womanflesh
doth tempt
the Angels of the Watch
to sin,
and their Sons are
Nephilim

Thrice Blessed are we in His Garden:
we have the Word, our health, our kin:
as we "go forth and multiply,"
we take from each other's skin

Endogamy: the Choice of millions
in (all their) Elemental ugliness:
in the echoes of Repetition,
Imperfection sires itself

Nothing in Life
has any business being Perfect:
it's an affront
to anyone with good taste

Choice is Divine,
so choose Family over strangers;
why trouble the Waters
of the gene pool for a mate?

Carbon Vessel
carbon content
carbon copy
...Carbonize...

Like a lump between two surgeons,
Man quivers 'twixt desire and need;
the Law is the Will, and we've chosen
the Kingdom of Which we would be

In filial Sect,
we are Genesis Incarnate:
in our faces,
see Manifest Destiny

(and) leave nothing alive

With thoughts of Heaven come deeds of flesh:
we'd look once more upon His Holy Visage,
and our children whom we've known and wed
(are) our means to recreate His Image

In lurking Fear of His Displeasure
after dark, between their cries,
in the Eye of the Beholder:
this is where Beauty dies

I need to hear a decent version of BMF. I used to have one of those awful remasters done from a crap mix. It was the worst of all worlds. I listened to some dude's vinyl copy over youtube and even through that could tell it sounded better than any I'd heard before.

And I do like the DiSalvo years. A different beast obviously.

Whisper Supremacy was great.

yeah I don't like the venue they're playing at next week here either but I'm still going.

but wtf at Levasseur leaving again. needs to make up his damn mind.

lol is Flo the only original member? damn.

He'll drum on one of your songs for $500.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-fund-cryptopsy-s-the-book-of-suffering

Not as bizarre as the current Christian Death kickstarter tbf. (Valor Kand will baptize your baby or officiate your wedding for $2000. CD will play at your funeral for $20K.)

I contributed to that kickstarter but only $5.

they were awesome the other night. I actually liked the new song they debuted too.

I finally listened to some of Unspoken King and while I can see where the whining came from, it wasn't balls-out bad like I was expecting. not exactly memorable and terrible vocals but not exactly St Anger

Lord Worm's lyrics can be amazing.

What eventually got me into this band were the lyrics to Benedictine Convulsions; well, more the fact that there was a song called Benedictine Convulsions and that the lyrics read like a hallucinatory impression of one of those European Satan-panics like the one that happened at Loudun.

listening to None So Vile right now. holy fuck it is so fucking amazing! haven't gotten so hard into, like, any other death metal album

I think one of the things I like about None So Vile is that it has a little bit of looseness to the playing and production. They're obviously a proficient band but it doesn't have that almost asphyxiating tightness of, say, Effigy of the Forgotten.

Which is also great, obviously!

it's loose and rangy and the songs move in kickass directions and it all grooves so sweetly. plus they have tunes! and they understand suspense!

Exactly!

http://auspacmedia.com.au/listings/1385/images/main/listing_page_thumb.jpg

Love that Lord Worm was an English teacher.

it weirds me out a little that despite only Flo remaining from that era, the new EP just about inhabits the space between Whisper Supremacy and ...And Then You'll Beg.

also they were really hella awesome earlier this year. I probably still am sore from hitting the deck during "Phobophile"

lol, apparently they've had 16 other people in the band at various times other than their current lineup. enough for four Cryptopsys! (5 and some change if they decided to be power trios)

They should do that thing King Crimson did once, where there are three trios playing at once.

Tripletopsy

I love Blasphemy Made Flesh but will never quite get why they seem to have shoved the guitar into only one side of the mix.

it's not like expanding the sound on NSV made the awesome bass inaudible.

still tho......"Defenestration" might just be one of their best tunes.

I don't notice that in the mix on the reissue, do you have an earlier version? Agreed on Defenestration though.

the reissue sounds better yes.

going to see them do NSV live tonight in Atlanta. humorous to me that Flo is the only one in the band that even played on that thing but what do I care? the new band is tight and their last EP ripped.

I wonder if they'll play anything else after.

Decrepit Birth opening too!

I would be pretty happy if they just played NSV over again tbh

Oh man this was awesome. Phobophile got the place moving. I am sore af

Also finally got the elusive None So Vile shirt (they didn't have any but small last time) and it's a special tour version

vocalist Dan Greening (who would later take the name "Lord Worm" because he would dig up and ingest worms on stage)

well that's that mystery solved

Man, Once Was Not is pretty monstrous. I will totally stan for the DiSalvo* era but when they have Lord Worm there's just a weird chemistry nothing quite matches. And again the production on this record is so good, lots of air around everything.

* DiSalvo's one of two (or three or four) vocalists in Coma Cluster Void rn if anyone needs like uh discordant slabby brutal prog metal.

"Here Come the Cadaver Dogs" actually manages to be a song about serial killers that's kind of lyrically interesting.

Wait it's "Keeping the Cadaver Dogs Busy," was confusing them with the Monkees.

Here come the cadaver dogs:
they'll find where the dead man lies;
unlike us, they'll be soft with him,
like he were thinning ice

I love Lord Worm's puckish sense of humor is what I'm saying.

I still love these guys. the Book of Suffering EPs were really nice. I want another full length.

would be nice if Levasseur would rejoin again, his guitar tone/riff style is hard to mimic (though Donaldson does a fairly good job).

i'm actually pleasantly surprised how well Mounier plus 4 unoriginal members do at replicating the authentic Topsy sound. much like Suffocation, though they still have Terrence Hobbs.

i saw photos of my trip three years ago to ATL to see them do None So Vile front to back. one of the most fun nights of my life. nothing beats hearing the drastic tempo shift in "Phobophile" and being in the pit as hell breaks loose. I remember getting thrown towards a merch table by a careening mosher during that song once, and upon landing on the table and almost knocking it over, and being apologetic. whereas the merch girl looked at me, grinning, and THEN SHOVED ME BACK INTO THE PIT, saying "c'mon, get back out there!"

going to listen to as much Topsy as I can tonight

starting with Blasphemy Made Flesh.

\m/.

this is underrated, it isn't NSV but it isn't that far off.

Whisper Supremacy is so good but wow is it different, that production seems more like the death metal production of today, so scooped and with all frequencies kinda mushed together.

"Emaciate" is one of my favorite Topsy songs, but it's definitely not the savage beast of NSV.

Whisper is a great record but that "demon torso with a tapeworm" cover is hilarious

haha yeah. the whole thing has a bit of a "bro" vibe or something, but yeah, it's good. "cold hate, warm blood" def classic. I think I like it a little more than most because it was the only cryptopsy record a friend had and I heard it in his car a lot.

it was the first one I owned because None So Vile was out of print (at the time - now it's been re-released so much I think I've owned three different versions of it)

new album coming, and TOUR baby (I think Abysmal Dawn is also support at all shows)

09/07 Manchester, NH @ Jewel Nightclub *
09/08 Brooklyn, NY @ Meadows *
09/09 Clifton, NJ @ Dingbatz *
09/10 Pittsburgh, PA @ Preserving Underground *
09/11 Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade (Hell) *
09/12 Tampa, FL @ The Brass Mug *
09/14 Houston, TX @ Scout Bar *
09/15 Austin, TX @ Come and Take it Live *
09/16 Dallas, TX @ TBA *
09/17 Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad *
09/18 Las Vegas, NV @ Backstage Bar *
09/19 Mesa, AZ @ Nile Underground *
09/20 San Diego, CA @ Brick by Brick #
09/21 Los Angeles, CA @ 1720 #
09/22 San Francisco, CA @ DNA Lounge #
09/23 Roseville, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post #
09/24 Portland, OR @ Dante’s #
09/25 Seattle, WA @ El Corazon #
09/26 Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theater #
09/27 Boise, ID @ The Shredder #
09/29 Denver, CO @ HQ #
09/30 Lincoln, NE @ Cosmic Eye Live #
10/01 Joliet, IL @ The Forge #
10/02 Grand Rapids, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme #
10/03 Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace #
10/04 Kingston, ON @ Overtime Sports Bar #
10/05 Quebec City, QC @ La Source de la Martinière #
10/06 Montreal, QC @ Foufounes Electriques #

*with Hate
#with Visceral Disgorge

new one's good! at this point their style just seems like an amalgamation of all of the styles they've played throughout their career (sans Unspoken King). I do feel like Flo's brilliance gets lost sometimes in the hypersterilized production and McGachy is kinda just there as a vocalist, but the playing is tight and it's a good slate of songs, nice middle ground between caveman death metal and boring, noodly 21st century tech death. good late period album and I'll be bumping it lots.