The Unspoken King
Cryptopsy is a Canadian death metal band that has been around since the late 80s. But what you will hear on The Unspoken King is different than anything they have done before. This would be due to the fact that this is their first album with new vocalist Matt McGachy and the addition of a keyboardist Maggie Durand. In fact there aren’t any original members in the band any longer. Their technical death metal sound became more deathcore. It was widely trashed by their hardcore fans. “Bound Dead” and “Leach” are a good examples of their cleaner vocals mixed in with attempts at death metal. It wouldn’t be terrible if they were actually good at the hardcore or metalcore part but they’re not. The death metal styling may be great but its overshadowed by the crappy experimentation in vocals.
What do I say about this album? It’s a mess of screaming over quickly played music. The Unspoken King is the 7th studio album from Cryptopsy but it seems like they’re starting from square one with this new singer. Its basically a new band putting out their debut release. They don’t quite click yet. I found myself just feeling like the whole thing was overly repetitive, especially the drumming. I couldn’t understand the lyrics even though they were supposedly “cleaner” so I’m not sure if the new vocalist is a talented songwriter or not. But usually for death metal that is secondary to throaty vocals and double bass. So it’s a shame they aren’t as death metal as they used to be. The music is still insanely fast and may rock your socks off but it’s a bit of a mess jumbled all together with the vocals not quite fitting in…. yet.
