Cryptopsy: The Massacre Continues With An Insatiable Violence

Following on from their universally acclaimed album, As Gomorrah Burns, Cryptopsy have returned with another offering of frenzied insanity in the form of An Insatiable Violence. From the very first note of this album, it’s clear that Cryptopsy are still at the absolute peak of their career with a vicious assault of technical death metal. 

The album cover by former vocalist Martin Lacroix invokes the legendary artwork of Dan Seagrave, most notable for album covers like Altars of Madness, Effigy of the Forgotten and Like an Everflowing Stream. It’s a fitting tribute to their fallen vocalist, Martin Lacroix, who passed away in 2024. An old school death metal vibe is promised by the cover and the record itself absolutely delivers. 

The instrumentals and vocals are all stellar and showcase a brilliant hostility that Cryptopsy have been known for, the guitar work is frantic and chunky and the drumming from Flo Mounier is as preposterously frenzied as well. It doesn’t quite hit the lofty heights of As Gomorrah Burns but that’s a high standard to reach. There are slower and more foreboding segments on tracks like ‘Our Great Deception,’ ‘The Art of Emptiness’ and the anthemic album closer ‘Malicious Needs’ but the record is largely a gigantic hatchet to the face of unhinged intensity. 

You can make the argument that the entire record is a bit repetitive and just has a wild and frantic sound throughout and feels like a swarm of killer bees at times but the short run time ensures that you’ve gotten everything you need before you start to feel everything get repetitive. There aren’t many guitar solos which is a disappointing factor but the few that appear on the album, like the one on ‘Until There’s Nothing Left,’ are still memorable and give Christian Donaldson a chance to shine amongst the chaos. 

Cryptopsy are a band that have had a number of different iterations and sounds over the years, for better or worse. Purists will be pleased to learn that there is no deathcore on the album even though The Unspoken King is a solid album (fight me). The tried and true meat and potatoes approach to death metal is a safe venture and highly appreciated from time to time. With any luck, the next record will feature a bit more experimentation and variety but at the moment, we have a chunky slab of bloody death metal and we can’t really ask for much else, can we?

An Insatiable Violence is available June 20th via Season of Mist.