Cryptopsy’s The Book of Suffering – Tome II is the embodiment of chaos! (Review)

23/10/2018 Reviews Share

Bring it on! Canadian death metal veterans Cryptopsy are about to release their new EP titled The Book of Suffering - Tome II. Therefore, we present to you our review of this nerve-wrecking release which is coming out on October 26th.

The opening chord of the first song, The Wretched Living is teasing us from the start, not knowing what will happen next. And then, the avalanche begins! Deep growl, followed by crushing riffs and gravity blasts is just a piece of sonic fury thrown upon the ears of the listeners. All Cryptopsy elements are there – dissonance, hammering bass sound, classic death metal riffage, Flo Mounier’s distinctive drumming… The song is not short of technical death metal elements embodied through the crazy riffage of Christian Donaldson (guitar) and Olivier Pinard (bass). And of course, Mat McGachy’s vocals mimic the sheer brutality of Cryptopsy’s music. The break that follows is just an overture to the chaos unleashed through a power chord assault followed by noisy guitar & bass punches. The next song on the list, Sire of Sin was already released as a single. This one features some tasty & catchy octave riffs. And then starts the sonic implosion! To some extent, this song has more of a simplistic nature when compared to the previous one (which is actually a pretty damn hilarious statement if we have in mind the overall technicality of this band!) with occasional all-over-the-fretboard guitar boost & a head-chopping breakdown whose sole purpose is (ha!) to relieve the band of the pain created by their over-the-top playing! Still, Sire of Sin is frantic, technical & noisy from beginning to the end and it will keep your heads banging!

Fear His Displeasure starts with a quirky black metal sounding intro riff and then proceeds with guitar whipping that evolves into a full head-on death metal madness. The song suddenly gets into thrashy mode. Delayed guitar effects which indicate a new calm before the storm embodied through some major grinding guitar chops! The second part of the song becomes less technical and then Mat McGachy gets into rampage mode! Goddamn CRYPTOPSY! The last tune on this release, The Laws of the Flesh starts with Olivier Pinard’s slow & innocent bass rattling and all a sudden, all hell breaks loose! Guitar & bass hammer-time is followed by a really distinctive & hypnotic repeating guitar pattern. And once again, classic melodic Cryptopsy riffs, followed by gravity blasts and Lord Worm-like vocals kick in. Still, Matt McGachy’s vocal approach differs quite a bit in this song when compared to the rest of the material from this EP. And yeah, Christian Donaldson delivered an eargasmic solo (the only solo on this release!). Gravity blasts and 20 seconds long growls are nice way to close the EP though!

Credits: Eric Sanchez Photography

It’s really a pity that we didn’t get a full length album, but still… If you’re up to some sophisticated, dissonant, technical death metal stuff, Cryptopsy’s Book of Suffering – Tome II is a flawless release worthy of your time (and money)! Canadan death metal masters have displayed their mastery to a full extent! And yeah, Montreal, Quebec seems to be what Tampa Florida was back in the glory days... Now the countdown for the new album may begin!

Rating: 8.6/10

P.S. Fear not The Unspoken King PT II!

PRE ORDER: https://cryptopsyofficial.bandcamp.com/

TRACKLISTING:
1. THE WRETCHED LIVING
2. SIRE OF SIN
3. FEAR HIS DISPLEASURE
4. THE LAWS OF THE FLESH

MEMBERS:
Flo Mounier: Drums/Vocals
Chris Donaldson: Guitar
Matt McGachy: Lead Vocals
Olivier Pinard: Bass Guitar