Cryptopsy
- Story by Kevin Stewart-Panko
The Unspoken King Studio Report
Title: The Unspoken King
Producer: Cryptopsy
Studio: Studio Garage; drums recorded at Flo Mounier’s house.
Recording Dates: Jan 2nd - still in progress at press time
Release Date: Late May
Label: Century Media
If you harnessed the metal world’s collective shock, invective and ballistic conclusion-jumping after Cryptopsy posted an announcement seeking not only a keyboard/sample-ist, but a replacement for the departed Dan “Lord Worm” Greening (who would be required “to sing in clean voice and on pitch”), you could have powered an Airbus to New Zealand. Suburban outrage was swift and immediate, though few stopped to think that these forward-thinking and boundary-expanding death metal maestros might not be throwing away 16 years of hard work. Instead, the new album had already been written in some minds, as cries of “Cryptopsy is dead!” “Cryptopsy is going metalcore!” and the metalhead’s insult du jour, “Cryptopsy is going emo!” littered message boards.
“This was part of the idea we had when we started working on the new material,” says drummer Flo Mounier, explaining the band’s most recent growth spurt. “First, we wanted a keyboard/sample player who could add a little more live atmosphere. As far as a singer, we were just fed up with monotonous [makes staccato grunting noises] sound through whole albums. I’m a big fan of dynamics in music and creating diversity. We wanted something really extreme in some parts, but with melodics and ambience in others. We’re not planning on using clean vocals all that much, but we wanted someone who could, just in case.”
The new puzzle pieces are keyboardist Maggie Durand and vocalist Matt McGachy, who, along with Mounier, bassist Eric Langlois and guitarists Chris Donaldson and Alex Auburn, have taken advantage of a particularly snowy Montréal winter to hunker down in Donaldson’s home studio to record their sixth album.
“First, it’s going to be the best-sounding Cryptopsy album,” enthuses Mounier, hinting that the metal community might want to redirect their anger towards Montréal city workers for not adequately clearing the ice in Mounier’s neighborhood, causing him to recently fall and break his kneecap. “It’ll be the ‘tastiest’ and most mature; all the parts are there for a reason and everything fits really well. Vocally, it’ll be the most diverse Cryptopsy album; there will be a whole slew of screams, growls and voices.
“I’m a fan of different sorts of music,” he concludes, “and think it’s most fun when a band puts out an album that has elements of everything; you get this thing called diversity, not boredom. That’s what we’re trying to do. Still, I think people are going to be surprised how brutal this album is.”
