Cryptopsy - The Unspoken King review
| Band: | Cryptopsy |
| Album: | The Unspoken King |
| Style: | Deathcore |
| Release date: | May 2008 |
01. Worship Your Demons
02. The Headsmen
03. Silence The Tyrants
04. Bemoan The Martyr
05. Leach
06. The Plagued
07. Resurgence Of An Empire
08. Anoint The Dead
09. Contemplate Regicide
10. Bound Dead
11. (Exit) The Few
In what is likely to be the single most shocking event on the scene this year, longtime brutal death metal stalwarts Cryptopsy decided to reinvent themselves as crazy jacks-of-all-trades for their latest release, The Unspoken King. Nevertheless, this album shouldn't get buried by the chaos that will certainly ensue amongst old fans and other more orthodox death metal types. This is because it is just too good to be mired by ridiculous genre discussions.
Yes, what you heard is true - this album contains clean vocals, melodeath leads, funky bass lines, breakdowns augmented by brass instruments, jazzoid guitar solos, samples and keyboards (amongst other things). At the same time, the band doesn't abandon their brutal side at all. The difference is that within the more interesting and dynamic song structures that their expanded means allow for, Cryptopsy now doesn't dwell in brutality for its own sake. The enjoyment of this music doesn't come from the novelty of how ridiculously technical and violent it is. Instead, an appreciation of how these traits are incorporated into concise and impressive musical pieces comes to the fore and the Canadians clearly have the song writing chops to make it all work together in a memorable way. Bands like Protest The Hero or SikTh also make unpredictable ADD-metal that jumps all over the place stylistically; however, thanks to their musical pedigree and experience with chaotic song writing, Cryptopsy simply do it better and with more class.
The Unspoken King is unpredictable but flows well together. As songs like "Leach" and "The Plagued" demonstrate, the key to making this album work lies in memorable motives and the remarkably innovative ways of fusing them together. "The Plagued" is actually, as difficult as that is to believe, an extreme metal ballad. Of particular note is also the song "Bound Dead", which mixes death metal with vocal melodies recalling Alice In Chains with a finesse that can only be described as frightening.
Bands like Dillinger Escape Plan, Between The Buried And Me and Divine Heresy take notice: Cryptopsy is giving you a run for your money. Music should be evaluated based on how successful a band is at achieving the given aim of a collection of songs. The Unspoken King passes this with flying colors. One thing is for sure: this band sure does have balls.
 | Written on 17.04.2008 by With Metal Storm since 2002, jupitreas has been subjecting the masses to his reviews for quite a while now. He lives in Warsaw, Poland, where he does his best to avoid prosecution for being so cool. |
Rating:
5.0
5.0
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Rating: 5.0 |
Cryptopsy are a household name when it comes to brutal death metal, and for five albums over the past fourteen years that is exactly what they delivered. Until now. Lord Worm is out of the band, replaced by metalcore vocalist Matt McGachy and for the first time in the band's history a keyboard player, Maggie Durand, is introduced to the ranks. Musically Cryptopsy are a completely different band, shedding their brutal death metal skins and wriggling towards the metalcore whilst still keeping some technical death metal ties. Read more ›› |
Comments page 3 / 5
Comments: 122
Visited by: 503 users
| Inlé Posts: 334  |
Written by Number Juan on 21.04.2008 at 05:52 Female + barely plays = Live show eye candy.
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| gojko88 Posts: 19  |
To all people in favour of the band's "progression": Four people made this band legendary. Four were the ones to record None So Vile and make Cryptopsy famous. Out of those four people, three have quit or been kicked out of the band. Out of SIX members of the current line-up, ONE is from the good old days. How on Earth can that be called progression? These are not matured members who recorded None So Vile, these are DIFFERENT musicians! Imagine living in a house with three other people. Ten years later, those three are gone and five new people have situated there. Naturally, those five are completely different than the original three. Is that the same house you are living in? Only by its address.
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| Kinetic Posts: 180  |
They now sound like a slightly above average deathcore band. Even though it's hard for me to apreciate metalcore and such, I know when they make good music within their genre and these guys are decent. It's a 7/7.5 for deathcore fans. Never liked them before and certainly that's not going to change now. Just a note for the reviewer though...putting these guys on the same track with Dillinger Escape Plan is absurd...
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| Clintagräm Shrinebuilder Posts: 5772  |
Written by Kinetic on 29.05.2008 at 13:41 Why would you say that? Dillinger is an extremely talented band. Unless you just mean genre wise. Or that DEP is actually better. Not sure what you mean.
---- The force will be with you, always.
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| Kinetic Posts: 180 |
Written by Clintagräm on 29.05.2008 at 20:24 Because DEP is of a different genre. But if we're talking quality wise, they're also better but that's subjective 
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| Clintagräm Shrinebuilder Posts: 5772 |
Written by Kinetic on 29.05.2008 at 20:31 Oh okay, I got you.
---- The force will be with you, always.
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| TheBigRossowski Posts: 1355  |
Just came back from the show in Frankfurt and I have to say, I think they're embarrassed of the album! I was talking to old dude Tony from Unmerciful and he said I'd be pleased with the set. They played ONE song from the new album...Worship Your Demons. That was it!! The rest was older shit (last song being Phobophile after being chanted back on stage). Maggie didn't tour with them either! I'll give that Matt some kudos though, he sounds MUCH better live and he didn't really well with the songs. He gave birth to a sweet Orgiastic Disembowelment! Not too many hints of "hardcore" in the set. It was a great show considering they already knew no one is happy with the album.
---- That rug really tied the room together, did it not? 
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| Promonex Cathemeral Elite Posts: 9720  |
Written by TheBigRossowski on 11.06.2008 at 02:22 Thanks for ruining my day 
---- All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu... This is the truth! This is my belief! ...At least for now. - The Mystery of Life, Vol. 841 Ch. 26
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| SlaytallicA Lycanthropy Posts: 1261  |
Written by TheBigRossowski on 11.06.2008 at 02:22 At least they know what they have done...
---- One Pound Of Flesh, No More No Less, No Cartilage, No Bones, But Only Flesh...
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| Darkside Momo Retired Elite Posts: 9087  |
Seeing everyone arguing so hotly  here was fun.So I'll listen to it, and see. Beware : 1) I like bands that evolve and re-invent themselves 2) I don't like deathcore or copycats.
---- My Author's Blog (in French)  "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you" "I've lost too many years now I'm stealing back my soul I am awake"
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| christgrinder Account deleted |
christgrinder
Account deleted
well.. when i heard this album, i was SHOCKED. genuinly SHOCKED. did not expect this.... the album is more fluid than their other stuff, and more melodic. and i agree with some of the people who posted about this album, cryptopsy has balls for releasing this album. and it DOES show how close minded a lot of the metal community really is. 
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| VPeter Posts: 1450  |
damn the hate is massive, I'm willing to bet that this album is going to be the dissapiontment of 2008.
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| Darkside Momo Retired Elite Posts: 9087 |
Written by VPeter on 24.07.2008 at 11:58 MS's biggest letdown of 2008, we agree it's a sure bet. I didn't like it that much, because while they have balls to change, I personally didn't find it really interesting. However I also think that the vocalist is VERY good.
---- My Author's Blog (in French) "You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you" "I've lost too many years now I'm stealing back my soul I am awake"
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| HeavenDuff Posts: 16  |
It's a great album. There is a lot of melodic and oh so surprisingly agressive and brutal riffs. All of the songs are quite unique on this album, and if your not into the most brutal songs of death metal music, there are a couple songs that contain clean vocals and slow riffs. I don't see why people are complainning about the vocals... they fit pretty well with the music. But hey, thats my opinion
---- Nothing less than a Metal God
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| tuerda Posts: 203 |
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| V8Thrasher Posts: 30  |
I dont mind the change in playing style, i dont mind the adding of keyboards and what not. i dont mind break downs(but too many can be annoying). what i feel really KILLS this album is the clean vocals. they just do not belong on this cd, not in the band even. one song that truly stands out to me is "Silence The Tyrants". its not highly technical by any means, but it gets the job done. it pumps me up, gives me a burst of energy the only song on the album that does this. and what most Death Metal bands fail to do for the sake of being too technical. my advice: listen to this thinking its a different band. youlll enjoy it much more.
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| Uirapuru Liver Failure Posts: 2955  |
I usually like when a band does something like that:. change its style in a unpredictable way, and chock everyone...specially when i don't care much about the band . Still, althought it was a brave thing to do, they could've done it with a little more quality. This album is bad even for the whatever new style they become...the first two tracks, the introduction one, and ''The Headsmen'', are really boring; ''Silence the tyrants'' its a little better, as fast as the previous but with a catchy tone that doesn't look so appealing to please.The rest is the same thing, oscillating good and bad moments. One more thing: the clean vocals doesnt bother me at all, the screams yes, seems like an Atreyu song, horrible, just horrible...
----  ---- member of the true crusade against old school heavy metal, early 80s thrash, NWOBHM, traditional doom, first and second wave black metal, old school death metal, US power metal, 70s prog rock and atmospheric doomsludgestoner. o/
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| Itoc Trønder Posts: 68  |
Written by gojko88 on 06.05.2008 at 00:53 I Couldn't agree more
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469  |
Written by Spyroid on 17.04.2008 at 14:12 This reminds me of the situation on Powermetal boards. Each time you say that you don't like a new album, people tell you you are close-minded. Open-mindedness is a quality but, unfortunately, it can quickly become a flaw, if you're so 'open-minded' you like every crap released on the market and can't accept that some other people are critical and don't 'swallow the shit' so easily. (like this illness that makes some people believe anything that sounds like Powermetal is awesome) Also, I think bands that change their style too much should release the new stuff on another name, to avoid misleading people. In this case, it's normal if people expected a Brutal Death album, since Cryptopsy have always been a Brutal Death band. As for the 'appreciate all genres' thingy, I dislike the snobbish attitude of those who believe they're better than others only because they have more varied tastes and listen to more metal genres. Personally, I don't feel forced to enjoy any genre. If I hate nu-metal or metalcore, why would I bother listening to it? Only to be open-minded? No thanks.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| AyΣm Abyssal Zebra Posts: 282  |
To explain what this album is : I was doing some blindtest with only metal with friends. I thought one song of this album was from Sum41, I didn't understand what was doing Sum41 on my fuckin extreme metal playlist! So we looked...and heart attack...
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469 |
This album sucks. Period.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| GutturalNinja Posts: 29  |
I personaly haven't heard the entire album. I think I've heard 3 songs. I don't think it's so bad but I'm not attracted by the new direction. I have to say, as a short-time Cryptopsy fan, the change did not upset me like an old-time fan because I wasn't even born when they first formed in 1992 so I haven't followed them for years. Still, to me Cryptopsy will always be the Brutal Death band they were. And I don't think I'll even bother checking their new stuff because I still have 2 older albums to discover (Whisper Supremacy & And then you'll beg).
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| DayFly Posts: 383  |
Very honest review, I enjoyed reading it a lot and that's coming from a guy who could care less about death metal. Maybe I'll even try the album.
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| anarchist_36 Posts: 10 |
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| thewall30 Posts: 338  |
I never understood why everyone just hates this album, yeah we get it, it doesn't sound like the old Cryptopsy, but than again they probably never will again. I think this album is decent, and of course Flo Mounier is beast as he is on every single Cryptopsy album.
---- 
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| MetalDoomMaster Posts: 563 |
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| Tursti Posts: 31 |
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| Moosh666 Posts: 132  |
I think seeing trends made by corporations endorsing scenekids as a bad thing is very intelligent. We metalheads are not ignorant, we like different and new things, we however do not like poppy crap we've seen a million times. An except of musical progression in metal would probably be stuff like Crossover Thrash, or that banjo solo that the BLACK METAL BAND Taake did. Poppy emo crap is not musical progression, it's fucking selling out.
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