Whisper Supremacy

by

Cryptopsy

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Rarely do I come across an album that is astonishing in the pure speed, baffling with in it's time signatures and rhythms, mind-numbing in it's complexity, creative in it's songwriting, but at the very same time, makes me want to rip someone's face off.

To call this a death metal album hardly seems to do it justice, being that most death metal is dominated with monotonous growls, lame, masterbatory speed strumming, and recycled drum beats.

This album, although fits under the genre of "death metal", hardly fits any of the traits I listed above.

Drums: What words come to mind when hearing Flo's drumming on this album? Fast, intricate, genius, creative, but that does not even begin to describe it. He is all over his set every second of the album, there are no "down" or "mellow" parts to this album, there are only a couple seconds in which you are able to breathe before you are pummeled to death with a furious double bass, hyper blast beats, and spastic fills. His parts are unlike anything I've ever heard. His double bass rhythms are fast and complex, his fills are frequent and unpredictable, he utilizes odd jazzy drum parts that somehow fit in perfectly and his blast beats are the equalvilant to being shot with an M16. You can not go more than ten seconds listening to this album without hearing something either insanely fast or creative and complicated.

Guitar: Never have I heard the entire fretboard of a guitar be so badly abused. The dual guitar assault on this is relentless. Alex Auburn and Jon Levasseur churnout crushing riffs that dance all over the fretboard and keep up with Flo perfectly, the solos compliment the songs well, and are extremely well thought out, even though there are more moshy parts occasionally, and sometimes semi-melodic parts, the guitar parts NEVER go weak on this album.

Bass: Rarely can you find a bassist that can keep up with a great guitarist. But this is one of the many novelties found on this album. Eric can keep up with these fast punishing riffs, and even throws in a couple slap bass parts.

Sounds like a great album doesn't it? But wait, there's more.

Mike Disalvo is a brutal, rapid, unique, and creative voice, he fits the band perfectly. His somewhat abstract lyrics are wrapped in a brutal growl (that isn't retardedly low), that shifts harshness and pitch somewhat subtely, while adding an extra layer of complex rhythms over the already insanely technical music.

Overall song-writing: You usually never hear a band go through so many riffs in a single song, and go through so many speeds. At first listen, these riffs may seem randomly thrown together, but if you listen to the album about 30 times, (that's how complicated it is), you start to see how ingeniously these songs were written and put together. For instance, on White Worms (one of my favorites of the album), all the madness stops for one moment, Mike let's loose a brutal low scream as it suddenly goes into a breakdownish part, only to pick back up into a hyper blast part.

There are so many other parts on the album, I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs about how genious this album is, but you have to hear it to believe it.

If you consider yourself a fan of anything heavy or technical, there is NO reason why you shouldn't buy this album.

Well, I certainly do know what I like in music and what I blatantly hate. What happens when the musical elements you love collides with a lyrical performance that you abhor? The biggest issue for people who hate singers like DiSalvo is either ignoring it, or adapting to it. I'd prefer the former in this case, because Mike DiSalvo isn't a good death metal singer, he's fit for either a hardcore band, or possibly a metalcore band with that stupid "Yo yo yo, I'm in your face" oral discharge which is a poor excuse for a growl. DiSalvo can keep up with the music better than Lord Worm could, but at this point, no one really cares, because DiSalvo doesn't have the vocal SOUND for the job.

There are just times I'd wish to head bang, but then I hear that voice...and it almost embarrasses me to do so. Anyways, despite how bad of a picture I've already painted of the album, it's not as unbearable as you probably already think it is. Not much has really changed about Cryptopsy, and I'm a bit deplored to say that the song structures haven't really evolved much since Cryptopsy first released "Blasphemy Made Flesh." However, don't let that throw you off, everything is still very interesting, just a bit reused. The music as a whole is very fast and stays consistent throughout the entire album.

In every instrument department, this is very difficult stuff, and quite hard to dissect. After all, this is technical death metal. Most of the guitar playing is tremolo picking; there isn't much in the world of "heavy chug" riffs. Clearly, this is going for pure technical brutality, without any water downs. I don't know how long it took Jon Levasseur and Miguel Roy to learn how to play this well, but these guys must have some hands of steel to be able to play some of these riffs without popping a vein in their hands.

Flo Mounier delivers nothing short of an amazing performance, as usual. The impetus of Mr. Mounier must be to be the first death metal drummer to put on the most swift, relentless, and terrifying performance and come out of it with his arms and legs still in tact. Seriously, the guy could be mistaken for a drum machine because he drums so fast. Thanks to the deeds of Flo, I am constantly ghost drumming, with only the dream in mind that I could ever drum like he does. You know the feeling when you want to just beat on something until your arms fall off?

Yeah, that's the feeling the drumming gives off. While I wish I could rate this higher, because the music certainly is worthy of a high score, Mike DiSalvo's presence just throws me off. While he's not the worst vocalist of all time, he's not fit for a band like this. Vocals count as an instrument too, and Mike really screwed it up for Cryptopsy in that department. Congratulations, excellent music has met mediocre vocals.