ALBUM REVIEW: Cadaver Circulation – Krypts

Helsinki’s KRYPTS have been keeping the classic, doom-laden sound of early death metal alive for little over a decade. Where many of their fellow countrymen are more likely to be crafting melodic death folk and power metal, KRYPTS have eschewed polished production values and radio friendly hooks, opting instead to create some truly thunderous and bleak records which set them apart significantly from the rest of the scene around them. Their latest record, Cadaver Circulation, sees the band take their music to even more primal, macabre depths than before, creating an album that may, despite not being their best, one of their most intense and atmospheric.

Sinking Transient Waters is a great way to start Cadaver Circulation with thick, intense and aggressive hooks, sonorous gutturals and tight, punishing drumming all coming together to make an impenetrable wall of noise right from the very first note. Jumping between more speed driven moments and far more drawn out, crawling sections, it’s at many points as dark and brooding as it is fierce. It’s a long sprawling track that doesn’t get tedious at all, and proves to be a great way of easing the listener into the rest of the album. The Reek Of Loss takes a lot of the emphasis off of brutality, in favour of a far more atmospheric and bleak feel which helps to distinguish this song from is predecessor. It loses very little of its intensity overall, but the more visceral side of KRYPTS‘ sound is replaced with sharp, eerie, guitar parts and much steadier and more measured drumming patterns, with powerful, sludgy vocals adding plenty of depth to an already robust sound. It’s a great demonstration that KRYPTS don’t need to rely on speed and intensity in order to make great sounding death metal.

Echoes Emanate Forms follows in much the same vein, with slower, more sepulchral guitar parts dominating the sound and making for an oppressive and dissonant sound. It’s another great, yet ultimately unremarkable song. Mycelium is a groove laden, thunderous offering that proves to be a short, yet ferocious, piece of music that opens Cadaver Circulation‘s second half with some great riffs, peppered liberally with jarring melodies, booming vocals and an intricate percussive assault which all make this brief yet brutal song stand out as one of the albums more interesting songs. Vanishing, the second to last song on the record, creeps into life with a slow, methodical and bleak sounding riff that leads into a dirge-like, monolithic track with lots of primal percussive blasts and thick, grim atmosphere. It’s a very strong, rhythmic effort with a few sparse, eerie melodies thrown into to add a sharp counterpoint to the density of the rest of the music, but all in all, it’s not a particularly remarkable track, ultimately getting lost in the shuffle when held up for comparison with many of the earlier offerings.

Circling The Between is a suitably more grand and expansive affair, with an underlying energy that really helps make the music come alive. The guitars and drums interweave, making for a more fluid and slick sound, without sacrificing any of the robust, dirty edge that has made this album so good up until this point. The vocals gouge through the mix and again add a molasses thick exclamation point on the music, making everything sound massive. The song shifts into more frenzied and chaotic motifs, which makes the song feel far more varied and interesting throughout than some of the earlier songs. It’s a great track to close on, and gives the listener one last burst of power and intensity before the album reaches its conclusion.

There are a fair few points on here where the music could have been quite a bit stronger, and you get the feeling that a few more hooks and shifts would have elevated Cadaver Circulation from a decent outing to a great one. The album’s saving grace, at these times, is its production and tone; the grimy, crusty feel of many of these songs is evocative of a more old school death metal sound, and it gives this album a dark, sepulchral atmosphere that makes even the weakest songs on this record sound solid. It is, nonetheless, a good record with plenty of great moments spread throughout it, and it does a great job of acting as a worthy follow up to Remnants Of Expansion.

Rating: 7/10

Cadaver Circulation is out now via Dark Descent Records. 

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