Cryptosis - The Silent Call EP

Labels: Century Media Records

Formats: Vinyl/CD/Digital

Release Date: 01 December 2023

Tracklist:

1. The Silent Call

2. Master Of Life

3. Prospect Of Immortality (Live In Athens)

4. Transcendence (Live In Athens)

Dutch progressive death/thrash metal trio Cryptosis caught my eye recently, especially when I read about their upcoming European tour supporting Cynic and Obscura (what a line up that is!). They released their most recent EP The Silent Call in December just gone through Century Media Records, who previously released their 2021 album Bionic Swarm. This most recent EP was released on CD and vinyl yet what's strange to me is that it doesn't appear on Century Media's bandcamp page, and no physical copies are for sale in CM's web store. Maybe it was self-financed by Cryptosis (please let me know if I'm jumping to conclusions with all this). Anyway, to hell with my observations, let's dive in.

The Netherlands has become well-known for it’s ability to produce some amazing death/thrash metal bands over the years, including the likes of Asphyx, Legion Of The Damned and of course Distillator (who later on became Cryptosis). Cryptosis add progressive elements to their version of death/thrash metal, as demonstrated on title track ‘The Silent Call’. That progression takes the form of both traditional symphonic prog and subtle modern time-signature bending instrumentation. Their extreme metal chops are in fine fettle, which is why Century Media took such a keen interest in them by releasing their 2021 debut album Bionic Swarm.

‘Master Of Life’ was from the sessions for their debut album and it shows a much more immediate thrash metal form, which looks back to their days as Distillator, providing a much more simplified musical approach. There’s still impressive progression going on musically though and the symphonic elements are dialled down quite significantly too. Definitely a song for the extreme metal fan.

Now like the infamous Alive In Athens recordings by US power metal band Iced Earth, Cryptosis chose to release two of their own songs from a concert in the same city. You can tell that Athens loved them by the crowd chanting at the beginning of ‘Prospect Of Immortality’, which can still be heard over the song’s intro. As with ‘Master Of Life’ earlier on, Cryptosis inject some Slayer-like influences into their music, while melody and death metal percussion swirls around it all.

If you thought ‘Prospect Of Immortality’ was epic then ‘Transcendence’ will blow you away with it’s somewhat familiar yet insane tempo and delivery. The crowd in the background seem to love it’s intensity and why wouldn’t they! Cryptosis seem to have the ability to captivate audiences with their musical formula and long may it continue.

Physical copies of The Silent Call can be purchased directly from Cryptosis below:-

https://cryptosis.net/shop/

Cryptosis - https://www.facebook.com/CryptosisNL

Century Media Records - https://www.facebook.com/centurymedia