Of course, when talking about Austrian Death Metal, it is very easy to mention only bands like Disharmonic Orchestra, Pungent Stench, Disastrous Murmur, Miasma or maybe even Belphegor. While these bands have, of course, inevitably left their mark on the Extreme Metal environment in the Alpine country, there is even more to be found for connoisseurs and true scene diggers. Even in Austria’s contemporary metal scene, there is still plenty to enjoy for those who seek, most recently Fessus surfaced who piqued my interest with its first demo tape. Now we also have Cryptal Echoes, also a Death Metal band with admittedly youthful members, but whose feet are deep in the early founding days of the genre. Like Fessus earlier, I also spoke to these young guys…
Hi Benjamin, welcome to these pages. Before we get properly started, let’s first address a few things. In the short conversation we had prior this interview you said you were glad I mentioned in the review for the demo that your music had nothing to do with the “romantic” Doom/Death of bands like Swallow The Sun and My Dying Bride. Seems I touched upon something sensitive here…?
Benjamin: Hey Felix, thank you for doing the interview with us! I would not say that you touched a sensitive spot, but we all aren’t into this kind of Death/Doom these bands are playing. We are totally cool with people that are listening to such bands, but it’s just not that kind of Death/Doom we are listening to or are influenced by.
Instead of the more accessible sort of Doom/Death Metal bands, Cryptal Echoes classifies more like a Death/Doom Metal band, emphasising the DEATH Metal part of the music. You mentioned bands like classic acts like Mythic and Rippikoulu as well as newer acts like Spectral Voice as your main sources of inspiration. So, the concept of Cryptal Echoes had a clear musical concept from its very beginning?
Daniel: Yes, definitely. The first rehearsals of what would later become Cryptal Echoes date back to winter 2017. The idea has always been to play death doom. Different places of residence and other musical projects made us take a break from it until we arranged our first concert for Halloween 2021 and simply had to write more material and find a fixed line up.
Although I didn’t mention it in my review, to me, personally, the demo has much in common with both the early Dutch Death/Doom Metal scene as well as with Finnish Death Metal. It has the depth of those early Dutch bands such as Sempiternal Deathreign and the gritty and grinding sound of Finnish bands like Purtenance and Convulse. Is that something that you can agree with?
Benjamin: Yes, definitely. I love Convulse and Purtenance… just classics! The sound of these bands is just terrifying, but in a good way. Also, the Finnish bands are really important to me, like Abhorrence, early Amorphis, Sentenced, Disgrace, Depravity and especially Demilich. I also really enjoy the newer Death Metal thats coming from there. But I would not say that these bands influenced us directly, our influences lie more in bands like Grief, Spectral Voice and of course Corrupted.
Personally, I loved the unpolished and sandpaper-like production of the demo. It is quite clear that you did not go for the popular “wall of sound”-kind of sound. You just have to love that live feeling of that lumber jack drum sound! How do you yourself think that the demo tape came out? And that early 90’s sound of it, did it just appear as it is or did you work towards it deliberately?
Daniel: We’re quite happy with the result ourselves. Two of us had already recorded with Max before, he’s a close friend and it is very pleasant to work with him. He shares our love for 90’s death metal and we’ve been wanting to stay close to our rehearsal room/live sound anyway, so it’s actually always been clear in which direction we’d go production-wise. Nevertheless, more detailed things were decided spontaneously in the studio. We like to follow our intuition when possible because we are clear about our aesthetic preferences anyway.
One of the definite ear-catchers on the demo is your vocal work. While the grunting might be deep and thundering, it can be described just as “standard”, but what I really love is the screaming/yelling. I admit that it needed some getting used to, but it definitely brings something fresh and new to the music. Was this just something that came up or did you have this in mind already when you started singing in Cryptal Echoes? Who would you cite as your main inspiration when it comes to vocals?
Benjamin: Thanks for the nice words! In Cryptal Echoes, I started as the second guitarist and not as the vocalist. David, our drummer, was doing vocals at first (for our first 2 or 3 shows), but I took over when he had some struggles with his voice. Then, I hadn’t had anything on mind what I would do vocal-wise except for the typical lows. The yelling/screaming came naturally while we were rehearsing. As I said before, singing in a band was never my plan, but of course there some vocalists I really like such as Glen Benton (Deicide), Will Rahmer (Mortician) and Drakh (Katharsis), especially on the ‘VvorldVVithoutEnd’ album!
One of the musical highlights is the riff halfway of the closing track ‘Desolate Return’. That riff comes in crushing, crunching and grinding and rolling, right when the music picks up its pace a little. That roughness on the edges and the grainy guitar tone: near perfection to me. This is just pure early Bolt Thrower worship, isn’t it?
Benjamin: I wrote that riff when I was 14, when I got heavily into extreme metal – which was also the time when I found out about Bolt Thrower, so maybe that’s where this comes from. But I can’t remember if that was a conscious reference.
While Austria might not have had the most fertile grounds for Death Metal, the country offered us great bands like Pungent Stench, Miasma and two of my personal favourites: Disharmonic Orchestra and Disastrous Murmur. You told me you share your home town with a few if the key figures of Austrian Death Metal. How does this national Death Metal legacy translate to the music of Cryptal Echoes?
Daniel: I wouldn’t say that there is a direct aesthetic connection between us and the bands you mentioned, but they were undoubtedly important for our own personal musical socialization – also because they are from Austria and because of their underdog status. Especially Disharmonic Orchestra are an important reference point for how death metal can be played differently or transcended – musically, lyrically, aesthetically. Martin is certainly one of the most exciting drummers in metal history to date. These guys are also always good to talk to and have supported past projects of ours, so shout-out to them.
Also, from Austria is Fessus, another young Death Metal band that recently released their debut demo tape. You said you guys know each other as well. How would you describe the current scene in Austria? Is there something brewing? A new generation of Death Metal bands on the rise?
Benjamin: The scene became definitely more intresting in the last 5 years, I would say. Because of my age (20) and where I grew up, I was not really part of any scene. I got active only about 3 years ago. But I would say that it’s growing again with a lot of really good bands. Death Metal-wise there are just Fessus and Unsemblance that are worth mentioning besides the classic’s acts but shout-outs to Opioid Crisis from Vienna, Death Racer, Parasite Dreams and the Steel City Sorcery.
You guys seem to have come from nowhere. None of you have (documented) experience in Extreme Metal before, but your demo does not sound like as if you are rookies. What is the secret here?
Daniel: All of our past and present members have been active in different punk and metal bands in Austria for some time. There was already a first old school death metal band from our circle in the late 2000’s, but we try to find a new approach with every project and want to continue making the music we like. Underlying all of this is certainly a strong feeling of togetherness with the DIY punk scene.
Although the demo was put online as a digital stream on your Bandcamp page, I found out, after inquiring, there were some tapes as well. Why didn’t you put them up there for sale? Are you not much into physical sound carriers yourself?
Benjamin: The tapes were released via Urban Lurk at the same time as the digital release. Because there were just 40 copies made, we decided to not put them on Bandcamp. A second run of the tape was produced in the meantime, so you can order them via e-mail (cryptalechoes@gmail.com). We are all enthusiastic collectors of analogue media, so it was clear to us that we’d have to do tapes for the release.
Continuing a bit on the previous question. You have released this demo independently, but judging from the unforgiving murderousness of the music I would think that there will be enough labels interested to release it under their banners. Did you gain any interest for the wider release of these tracks already?
Benjamin: We had Urban Lurk from Vienna releasing our first demo – which was a pleasure as they are friends. But yes, there are some labels that want to do cassettes for/in the US, but we will see what time brings.
Now with this great demo just out there, what is there to expect from Cryptal Echoes for the upcoming months?
Benjamin: We had a line-up change with our bassist and our drummer. I’m taking over on drums and Lara has been playing bass since Simon left the band a year ago. She’s also a Death Metal maniac and is putting a lot into the band. We’re very motivated and already have new songs, as well. We will play a couple of shows in the coming months in Austria and Germany and are hyped to play the new songs live.
Yes, that was it for now. Thanks for your time and effort, Benjamin. Last words are yours…
Thanks for the interview and thanks to all the supporters of the band! Keep the underground scene alive and listen to fucking Repulsion, Autopsy, Sadistic Intent and Corrupted! STAY DEATH.
