Dedicated to the Impure

Razorback Records is well known for recruiting the best horror metal of various types. It makes perfect sense that they would recruit a band like Crypticus to their roster. Crypticus is the best horror death metal band you can find in Colorado. This release is a must have for those who are followers of Razorback Records, or just awesome death metal in general.

If heavy, intense music is your thing than Crypticus is the band for you. The guitar gives Crypticus a razor sharp edge. The tone is nothing less than cranial damaging. The riffs are fast and heavy, but sometimes lack in creativity. I must say, some of the riffs sound like there wasn't much effort put into them. The good thing is that they are completely fitting to the style and sound. The addition of powerful bass would make Crypticus much more heavy. The bass is greatly underpowered. The drums are programmed, and programmed very well. This is probably the best programming work I've seen among the plethora of bands who use fake drums. Crypticus has a very brutal style of vocals. They are low, gurgled and grunted which sounds awesome. There are also a few perks, such as a few cool intro clips, and a creepy synthesizer intro on 'The Crypticult'.

In short, this band is very entertaining. Crypticus knows how to make innovative death metal that doesn't bore you after the first track. This is the kind of death metal I like finding out about. It's not trendy, and there needs to be more like it. This is one of Colorado's finest, I recommend you check them out.

Spawned from the ashes of a Black Metal band, Crypticus is a one man project out of Colorado and the newest band to sell its soul to Razorback Record’s well known “Horror Hive”. This record “Dedicated to the Impure” has been hyped by Razorback and its minions alike to a massive degree, being promoted as some ground breaking comeback of an old skool death metal sounds; a sound that Razorback seem to be endorsing more and more these days, as opposed to their legacy of catchy and impressive grind-focused acts from previous years.
An old skool death metal vibe is most definitely prominent here, a lot of chaotic, winding, melodic riffs with breaks of speed driven and thrashy comfortable sections.
The songs themselves are actually quite well structured, very indepth riffs and the odd catchy riff that stands out, some of them reminiscent of Impaled or more recent Demilich.
Some of these songs almost tend to blur together though, largely due to the fast momentum and the excess of riffs piled on top of one another.
The cliché graveyard/ghoul Razorback theme is present in this album of course. There are keyboards and some samples added into later tracks which neither enhanced anything nor ruined anything here. The packaging and artwork also follow a similar theme; the black and white simple layout looks unreal and totally effective for this style. These aspects being possibly the only trace of Razorback evident on this album.
For the most part I found this cd repetitive a lot of the time and sometimes sterile. Not dark or raw enough to pull off an old skool sound that tends to demand atmosphere as much as good solid tunes. Most of this would be attributed to the use of a drum machine on this record I’d say. To me, It would be pretty impressive to pull off a sound like Crypticus seems to be attempting with anything less than a full band, and the music would benefit immeasurably from a real drummer.
Crypticus is definitely a band that grows on you, after a few listens I found myself enjoying this more even if it wasn’t all I had hoped it would be, and although there’s a lot that could be improved, Crypticus is definitely heading in the right direction with a shitload of potential.