Cryptosis: Reborn In 2149
“We are being delivered to the mercy of some of the crazy rich,” explains Frank de Riet, bass player of the newly reborn progressive thrash mob CRYPTOSIS. It’s an interesting thought and one that blends in perfectly with the themes running through their seismic debut LP, Bionic Swarm. Technology can be incredibly useful to us but has also caused many a backlash. It has taken over our lives (swarmed, if you will) throughout the years and shows no signs of stopping. It has been seen prominently within the music industry with the inclusion of streaming and digital platforms becoming a matter of access over ownership. It’s hard to imagine what life would be like in the year 2149, but CRYPTOSIS have some theories.
Bands over the years have been known to alter their sound, even sometimes their whole image. The reasoning behind this can include a number of factors but sometimes a change is what’s needed to keep things fresh and roll with the times. Out of the ashes of the old school thrash mob, DISTILLATOR birthed a whole new beast in CRYPTOSIS. Sure, the embers of their past work are still burning underneath their new explosive sound but they have reached maturation on their debut album under their new moniker and have created a truly intriguing dystopian concept record. We spoke a little more to Frank about how the band has evolved and how they came up with their futuristic ideas presented on the ferocious Bionic Swarm.
“I think it was more of an organic, natural development. We’d been on the road for a number of years with the three of us and we originally wanted to play real old school 80s thrash and while we had some success in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe, every time we travelled and toured we kept listening to different genres and bands and it always felt like we were on a musical journey,” explains Frank. “When we started to write new material, I think subconsciously it filtered through into our style of playing and we got tired of the straight-up thrash metal, which can sound the same a lot of the time. Our feelings towards the genre changed.”
There have been a lot of changes recently within metal, where bands have experimented with their sound. Deathcore for example is one such genre that has added more blackened and symphonic elements to its style. “If you look at the black metal scene, a lot of boundaries are being pushed with every release and every new group and we took inspiration from that,” says Frank. “We got to write whatever we wanted and we ended up with a blend of everything. We really like symphonic music, like DIMMU BORGIR, SYMPHONY X, DREAM THEATER. Technical bands but with symphonic elements,” adds Frank. These bands can be heard in the blueprint for the CRYPTOSIS sound. It has the frenetic thrash that previous fans have loved but with added melodic and a grander feel.
Writing a record during a pandemic is difficult but the guys had already been working on Bionic Swarm before it hit but the name change took time. “The record writing process took around 20 months,” states Frank. “We thought we should change the name as the band had gone in a different direction. We sent the mix to our manager without actually having a name yet. Century Media got involved and thought we should probably get a name now,” laughs Frank. “Even when talking contracts we were signing under ‘Unknown band name’. We got the final mix and then the pandemic started. We were so excited to share it with the world. Lots of hard work went into the album but we didn’t want to release it too soon and we were hoping it would have calmed down by March.”
Eventually, CRYPTOSIS was born and Bionic Swarm was ready to be thrust upon the metal world. “The record is a concept record chronicling nine dystopian stories/futuristic events that take place in the year 2149,” explains Frank. “Every song is a personal story, human/non-human. We also show viewpoints from the technology itself.” When asked where Frank and the band came up with the ideas present on the album he claims he was influenced by the British Netflix Show Black Mirror. “We took some inspiration from that show and from sci-fi movies but we wanted to create these stories ourselves without too much influence.”
Bionic Swarm is a monstrous progressive thrash album that has a number of standout tracks. We asked Frank about any that stood out in particular to him. “It’s a pretty diverse album, we’ve got fast songs, slow songs, technical songs. I think the song Prospect of Immortality is pretty different from the rest in terms of songwriting and sound. It’s more of the way I’d personally want to write songs going forward. Death Technology which is super crazy and fast is another favourite and the total opposite. It’s our show-off song.”
While speaking of technology, we asked whether the guys had a plan for livestreaming shows in the future. “Yeah!” Says Frank excitedly. “We are working behind the scenes to do a live stream. We’re trying to put together a show that’s interesting to watch and not just a live show without an audience.”
Bionic Swarm is out now via Century Media Records.
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