Hailing from Finland, these guys got together in 2007 whilst guitarist Miku (Mikael Kujala) and drummer Joel Manninen (who has since left the band – Cryptid are looking for new drummers – applications in the post please!) were serving in the army. The band is currently in writing mode for further material, but this published EP gives you a taster of things to come.
Technical death metal is the basis of this band, and whilst there are many bands out there doing the same thing, it can be hard to distinguish them from one band to another. Cryptid have the selling appeal of harsh Old school Swedish Death vocals from Ville Lund (Dawn of Relic) contributing to some classic technical guitar wizardry with an almost restrained sense of professionalism. The track ‘Illusion of Balance’ has a nice acoustic driven piece in the middle that gives the tunes an all together different appeal. Yes you have the usual vocals growls and punishing bass, but the arrangements give a sense of class to the proceedings. It certainly one that you play over and over again, even if the demo is only 3 tracks and just over 11 minutes long, it is of the highest order musically speaking, those syncopated guitar heavy sections mix well with some high end riffing. ‘Thirst’ has many an old school Scandinavian undertone to it, punishing bass and howling vocals like those heard in Sweden (think Grave’s ‘Back to the Grave’ album - vocally), then add the technicalities that changes the ambience, not for worse, but enhances your listening pleasure. The solo, although coming across like a different recorded level, is not too over the top and lets the track get back into its rhythm. ‘Substandard Performance’ is anything but what the title suggests, even if you discount many metalcore rhythms at the start. This then settles into another punishing bruiser, lots of twiddly twiddly guitar fills, they just sound good man!
A good taster of things to come, fans of technical death metal should check these guys out for further developments. When it’s done well, it’s a pleasure to listen too, at least its not all at breakneck speed, Cryptid have balance and plenty of metal appeal and the bonus is that this demo is also available to download from their myspace site.
http://www.myspace.com/cryptidband
