It’s been a hell of a long time since I’ve heard any new metal that has genuinely excited me, so even before the play button is hit, preconceptions of any brand-spanking disc will inevitably arise. Normally pessimism, and assumption that there will be nothing new, but tinged with hope that I might finally be wrong, that this will be the record that reminds me why heavy metal and all its eccentricities pretty much owned my ear-drums through my veritable teenage years.
As the first track begins, I’ve got the fear that these guys are just another Children Of Bodom rip-off band and my usual thoughts on modern metal bands reigns true… Thankfully, after a riff that borders on power metal (dear god no) Imperial Crypt promptly shift gear and begin a pounding, rhythmical assault on the darkest parts of the brain.
After doing a bit of research on these guys I noticed they’re calling themselves blackened death metal. While it is true that they have a crap-load of trem picking, death growl/high scream dual vocals and production that certainly wouldn’t be out of place in Norway in the late 90s, but for overall sound, they sound a lot more like the original melodic death bands. Think early At The Gates or Arch Enemy with their original sound (before they got all over-produced) but imagine Angela Gossow came in from the start. Then you’re close.
Imperial Crypt may hail from New York, but they’ve done an excellent job of capturing the authenticity and brutality of the early European metal, where the downtrodden and macabre meets the brutal. Third track, ‘Devouring The Celestial Kingdom’, is a perfect example of the mix between melodic death, the epic folk-influenced doom of Primordial and even some dirty old chug midway through.
By this stage I’m starting to get fed up with the incessant tremolo picking, it’s like the guitarists just learned it and are desperate to show off! That being said, after the third or fourth listen, it all begins to make sense. The trem becomes a full-bodied, penetrating wall of sound, forming the scenery in the putrid visions these songs inject into the mind.
By the end of the album I’ve pretty much abandoned all my preconceptions of how this band should sound and am just reveling in the sheer bleakness of it all. These lads may be NY city boys, but I can only imagine them as some blood-crazed medieval goblins, going on midnight, flesh-ripping raids on nearby villages and stealing away virgins for sacrifice to the fucked up Gods of the wilderness. I’ll eventually see them live and this vision will be ruined (what with them being human and all), but for now: they’re totally Goblins.
I started off skeptical, and you might too, but this is most definitely a grower. Give it time and it will reward you in spades. My faith in modern metal, whilst not being restored, has definitely been re-enforced! Thank you Imperial Crypt!
Posted by Eóin Boylan.
