In the world of extreme death metal, Cryptopsy stands tall as being the most influential and respected names in the industry. With classic albums like "None So Vile", they have made a big name for themselves in the metal industry and Flo Mournier (drums) and Lord Worm (vocals) have become legends. Unfortunately, Lord Word decided to leave the band after their excellent album "Once was Not". This came as rather depressing news for most fans of the band since the previous replacement for Lord Worm, Mike DiSalvo was a love/hate relationship for most of them. This time however, the band decided to make a more radical change by introducing the new vocalist Matt McGachy and keyboard player Maggie Durant. The new album is unlike anything Cryptopsy has done before, in short, nothing as tame! The album even includes clean vocals which just don't fit the image of such a twisted extreme metal band. The other downside of the album is that even with the addition of Maggie, you hardly hear any keyboards during any of the eleven songs in the album. The sound of the album is closer to Deathcore music, and sadly, there are other bands that play similar music and a whole lot better than Cryptopsy's latest attempt. There are some good songs in the album too like Worship your Demons, the Headsmen, Silence the Tyrants and Anoint the Dead. The rest of the songs are a mixed bag with some intense blast beats and technical guitar playing and unfitting clean vocals at some points in the songs which in my opinion really goes against the type of lyrical content of Cryptopsy.
If you listen to the album without thinking that Cryptopsy played it, its listenable but the moment you realize that metal monsters Cryptopsy churned out this crazy experiment, you kind of want to poke your ears with a pencil. It's not bad, no sir, but this is not what fans have come to expect from the Canadian Death Metal legends! I hope that this was only an experiment and Cryptopsy return to their roots in their next albums.
Rating: 6/10
