Meet SolarCrypt, a brand-new death metal solo mission based out of Heredia, Costa Rica. Similar to their neighbors Bloodsoaked Necrovoid and Astriferous, SolarCrypt unleash a relentless and massively destructive-style of death metal of non-stop megaton riffage, explosive drumming and hell sewage vocals—all the trademarks of the modern Costa Rican underground. Although their band name rings celestial, SolarCrypt, unlike Bloodsoaked Necrovoid and Astriferous, slay a more in-the-ground sound with their grave-digging riffs, rusty chain-strung bass guitars and that dark and crusty drum attack to keep it all heavy and firmly planted in the cold ground.
Of course we had to reach out. We found a talented young man named Jean Montero, ready and psyched to talk about his killer new death metal project. “SolarCrypt is my solo band,” Jean tells us. “I am in charge of the composition, execution, aesthetics and the lyrics composition. Luckily for me I grew up surrounded by music and through the years I have create[d] a good ear for this, but it is not like if I have a gift for that, but I can hear and see that, for the music I like, my abilities are enough. In the same way the learning is continuous, and I am trying to evolve through time.
“I am also part of a band called Pesadez in which I am also in charge of the composition, rhythm guitar and vocals. It is a band inside the sub-genre ‘D-Beat Raw Punk’ totally influenced by bands like: Discharge, Disclose, Anti-Cimex, Shitlickers, etc.”
Rot in the Multidimensional Sewer
Jeans considers how “being [in] a punk band and by the fidelity to the genre” he feels “limited about exploring different genres.” He says he’s always loved death metal “but because of the lack of resources” he never had the chance to start a death metal band. “If I had … the comforts I have now, maybe a long time ago I would have invested a bit in a solid death metal band before SolarCrypt,” he says. “[B]ut at the end I think this is the right moment to start shaping this mass of death.”
He goes on to explain, “The name SolarCrypt was created as a conjunction of ideas about death and the disposal of human essence. SolarCrypt is a name and an idea which gives honor to death, especially to those who die in loneliness, away from society and never being found, it is a way to thanks to those who die in misery, in some place so far away that the sun is the one in charge of [burying] the bodies. SolarCrypt is the name that I gave to the memorial that the universe gives to the dispossessed, those souls that are torn from their earthly coffins and rise to beautify the crypt of the cosmos.”
Jean says writing this demo “was complicated.” He says, “I had to throw away very initial proposals, ideas and concepts that never satisfied me at all and also those ideas were not the subject that I wanted to expose through SolarCrypt. I started the compositions privately in late 2019 after completing some gigs with Pesadez in Panama. After composing “Fractal Crypt For The Bleeding Cosmic Decomposition” (song that start[s] the demo) I knew that was the sound I wanted and the road that [would] define my path through this filthy sewer[.] The songs conserve the traditional [aspects] of the ‘90s with some D-Beat, Crust Punk from the ‘80s and ‘90s … Minimalistic and barbaric guitar riffs, a putrid bass guitar faithful to the guitars, a very dense drums and vocals that emanate the morbid smell of death from the sepulchral.” —We couldn’t have said it better ourselves!
According to Jean, “Rot In The Multidimensional Sewer was recorded, mixed and mastered in it totality by myself in my home studio named SOCIAL ABHORRENCE H.E. located in Heredia, Costa Rica during the pandemic on going this year.” He includes that the demo was recorded, “Totally analog and traditional.”
According to Jean, “The name of the demo” Rot In The Multidimensional Sewer comes from the idea that “each one of us represents a slope of the sewer, connected to the spiritual dumpster of the cosmos.” He explains, “Our bod[ies] and our souls die in these dry lands, our spect[ers] travel through dimensions looking for rest ‘til [they] find the solar crypt of the universe.”
He says, when it comes to lyrics, he writes, “about death and spiritual collapse, the defeat of mankind which looks [to] the sky waiting for an answer/ I write about the necrolatry and the precariousness of life itself. As I told you before, SolarCrypt worships death.”
The demo opener, “Fractal Crypt For The Bleeding Cosmic Decomposition, ” Jean explains “is the song the define[d] the path of SolarCrypt. In the same way, maybe in a future not so far away, [this song] could invoke another curse that will define even more this purulent cosmic wound.”
“The demo Rot In The Multidimensional Sewer will be edited and distributed by Harmful Existence Productions, which is a local label, managed by Federico Gutiérrez and members of the infamous bands Bloodsoaked Necrovoid and Astriferous. It will come out as cassette-pro, limited to 100 copies. Jean tells us the demo’s artwork was executed by “the amazing talented The Festering Phlegm.”
He’s hoping, “Maybe in the future there could be a reissue or something like that, a CD or a 7” I really don’t know but it’s in my plans. “
Looking ahead, Jean says he will “keep working”on SolarCrypt. He says, “Death never stops its journey. In this road nothing else than the death is real, all the other plans are there and also the intentions but why [do] we have to be worried about a future that we do not know even when the present is still rotting apart?”
