Artist: Cryptopsy
Country: Canada
Label: Season of Mist / Tuneforce Records
Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD
Year: 2025
It is more than safe to say that ‘As Gomorrah Burns’ won me back as a Cryptopsy fan. And we don’t have to beat around the bush here: 2025’s ‘An Insatiable Violence’ did not let me down either. The change of labels from Nuclear Blast to Season of Mist, a different artist for the cover artwork; none of that mattered to the sound. Cryptopsy continues on the tour de force it had found on its previous record.
Now if we were to analyse the previous albums side by side, ‘An Insatiable Violence’ has a little bit more room for engrained melodies and solos, and perhaps slightly more groove. On the flipside, the album is slightly more unpredictable and volatile. For example, ‘The Nimis Adoration’ opens in a typical wild blasting and whirling fashion but quickly adds groove along the way. As always, the music is frantically shifting in pace and riffs, exemplified by a beautiful solo that is abruptly torn apart by an intensely ferocious change of pace. Certainly, ‘An Insatiable Violence’ ranks amongst the most versatile and dynamic Cryptopsy records, switching between blistering aggression, chugging groove and melodic beauty in unpredictable fashion. However, while many bands commit the sin of wanting to add too much to a song, Cryptopsy just make it work. Take for instance ‘Dead Eyes Replete’. With its plethora of riffs it’s volatile as fuck, but the riffs still feel connected. The changes may be abrupt, but they don’t break the flow of the song at all. They’re simply Cryptopsy. Savage, technical madness held together by the insane drum work of Flo Mournier.
Yeah sure, Matt McGachy isn’t Lord Worm, and ‘An Insatiable Violence’ isn’t ‘None so Vile’ or ‘Blasphemy Made Flesh’,etc. Those arguments are getting really old. I continue to stand by the point that I made in the review of ‘As Gomorrah Burns’: these last two albums are better than anything they have done since those early albums, and yes, on par with ‘Whisper Supremacy’. If you love Cryptopsy, there’s no excuse not to check out ‘An Insatiable Violence’. Not in the least because it offers one last goodbye to the sadly deceased former frontman Martin Lacroix whose connection to the band is once more immortalized in the artwork that graces the cover of the album.
