CRYPTA
CRYPTA “Shades Of Sorrow”
BY Dr. Abner Mality
CRYPTA and I have something in common. We are survivors. I saw the ladies open for MORBID ANGEL at the Apollo Theater in Belvidere, IL on 3/31/23. After their set, a tornado hit the building and the roof collapsed, killing one and injuring many others. By the grace of God or some unknown power, CRYPTA and I both escaped injury. So we have that in common and that makes this album a bit more special in my eyes.
“Shades Of Sorrow” is the all-important second album for the band and I must say, this establishes CRYPTA as big time players in extreme metal. Are they thrash, death metal, black metal? The answer is all of the above and the subgenres are so subtly intertwined here that it’s difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. There’s a definite increase in technical playing here, with intricate guitar melodies and advanced song structures appearing. But it’s not TOO technical or TOO advanced...there is still plenty of heads-down speed and hard riffing. It must be admitted, some of the rawness of the first CRYPTA album has been sanded down a bit.
Looking past the three brief instrumental interludes, we have 10 tracks of blackened melodic death here. The vocals of Fernanda Lira are a strong point throughout...she sounds absolutely venomous and even does some deep growls. I tend to like the shorter, more compact tunes like “Poisonous Apathy”, “The Other Side of Anger” and “Lift The Blindfold”, with overtones of old SLAYER and SEPULTURA. The longer songs like “Stronghold” and “Lord of Ruins” tend to ramble.
All in all, CRYPTA have made the necessary leap forward with “Shades of Sorrow”. They can bring the house down...as long as they don’t do that literally!