Crypsismetal

Reviewed by Angstmikko on UK metal Underground: The sunny South-coast seaside resort of Brighton has always had a thriving music scene for wacky indie rock. It's metal scene seems to be on the rise too, with an increasing number of metal bands rearing their ugly heads and emerging from the depths. Crypsis are such an entity - a straight-up thrash metal band who seem to be quite new on the scene. Their site describes them as playing good old thrash metal with the occasional prog spasm, and this pretty much sums up the band. Crypsis carry more than enough violent-headbang-inducing weight to please even the most hardened old-skool fan, whilst providing some colourful variety through some pretty epic mid-sections. Though they only have two tracks up, you get the impression that these guys know what they are doing and are loving every minute of it. Demented Greed opens with a sick bassline that wouldn't sound amiss on an early Testament album, proceeding to relentlessly pummel your face into the dirt for one minute and forty-nine seconds before slowing things down for the breakdown - only to launch back into an aggressive closing passage. The pace, though not aggression, is dropped a little for False Hope, giving guitarist Ben a chance to showcase some excellent and varied riffing; the last minute-and-a-half is particularly epic. All in all, Crypsis are driven by some varied and interesting riffing and solid compositions, backed up by a very capable bassist and drummer. I only have two complaints about these tracks. Firstly, the recording quality isn't the best, and although it is true to the old-skool thrash sound, there were still some small niggles - I found the vocals were sometimes a touch too high in the mix, in particular in Demented Greed, and sometimes the drums, particularly the bass drum, were a little lost, which was a shame as there were some enjoyable double-bass antics going on in there. My other complaint? That there weren't more tracks up! Crypsis knock out some really enjoyable thrash numbers with engaging guitar work and bursts of prog metal - there really is quite some potential here. Get some more tracks recorded guys, gig the shit out of them, and do Brighton proud. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.