ALBUM REVIEW: Echoes Of The Soul – Crypta
Bringing together minds from both the Netherlands and Brazil, newly formed death metal unit CRYPTA have emerged, brandishing their new album Echoes Of The Soul. Featuring ex-members of BURNING WITCHES, NERVOSA and HAGBARD, these four women carry with them an enormous and foreboding pedigree. Will this new project live up to what has gone before?
The album opens with Awakening, a creepy, cloying intro that radiates all the vibes of your favourite 80s horror flick, before the atmosphere is shattered by a vicious snare count and Starvation sets in. As openers go, this is a solid one, coming tearing out of the gate at a furious pace. There is a feast of riffs on offer here, with speedy, rabid assaults laid cleanly alongside massive wedges of mid-paced, BOLT THROWER influenced chunk, all polished with intermittent wailing solos. The drumming is technical and bludgeoning and the vocal performance is varied and impressive, often becoming reminiscent of Chuck Schuldiner of DEATH. It’s a proper melting pot of influences and ideas and an immediate credit to the technical ability and songwriting skill of the people behind it, grabbing the listener in seconds and refusing to let go.
This continues into the deeper recesses of the album. Possessed begins with a much slower riff that slowly picks up speed and eventually trades off the rotten death metal backing with some haunting and captivating guitar harmonies. Emotionally it seems that there is a hint of more than just standard brain-melting death metal present, although that aspect is still very much front-and-centre. Following this we find the monolithic riff work of the infectious Death Arcana, which alternates between an utterly pummelling crawl and a much faster gallop. It’s crunchy and infectious and will replay itself in your head for days on end.
Fortunately, there is no dead space in the midsection of Echoes Of The Soul. From the sweeping majestic intro and intense blast beats of Shadow Within, to the thick, twisted knot of grumbling bass and guitars found in Under The Black Wings, there are almost too many highlights to mention. Possibly the biggest one however, belongs to Kali, which bursts into screeching madness immediately. It’s a track built around a relentless grinding riff and several excellent guitar solos with screaming divebombs and intricate, impressive drum work.
As we come to the album’s closing moments, we find Dark Night Of The Soul, which is possibly the album’s fastest and most furious moment and a late contender for best track. It’s a wall of impenetrable tremolo and ride bell abuse that breaks out into an absolutely massive riff that will have the bones in the listeners neck fearing for their very lives. By this point in the album it should be sharply apparent that while there are an obscene amount of riffs being thrown about, none of them have been bad. None of them. In over half an hour. Everything is considered, measured, engaging and sitting exactly where it needs to be, resulting in Echoes Of The Soul feeling like a new high watermark for anybody attempting to take a stab at the old school death metal tag. If it isn’t up to the standard we see here, why are you even bothering?
Closing the album we find From The Ashes. It’s an intense ride that manages to change riffs and tempos on a dime, with no juddering or losing the plot, just lightning-fast gear changes and death metal grit. Throughout there is a luscious melodic guitar line that clings to the riffs like vines to a wrought-iron fence, focusing the listener’s attention and morphing into little solos before vanishing again. The chorus is another infectious beast, which will still be playing in your head long after the track itself has barrelled straight off a cliff and left us with those sound effects of crackling wood and creeping keyboards.
Altogether, Echoes Of The Soul is a thoroughly scorching opening salvo. It is laden with maddeningly catchy melodies and belches white-hot riffs out at a maddening pace. It manages to be both accessible and technical, but most importantly when it comes to old school death metal, it’s overwhelming fun. You can easily tell throughout that all those involved are vastly enjoying themselves and that feeling is more infectious than any melody contained herein.
Rating: 9/10
Echoes Of The Soul is out now via Napalm Records.
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