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KRYPTAMOK “Kataklysmi”
KRYPTAMOK “Kataklysmi”
By Dr. Abner Mality
A cold front is headed your way and it’s called KRYPTAMOK. The icy forests of Finland will manifest themselves in your skull when you clap ears on “Kataklysmi”, even if you’ve got your toes in the sand on a Florida beach.
This is indeed a very classical sounding slice of black metal, with no pretensions towards doing anything especially new. That being said, you can still do a “traditional” sounding album without coming across like a bad copy of the glory days and so it is here. I won’t even begin to type out the jaw-breaking Finnish names of these tracks, which would give me carpal tunnel syndrome for sure. But Track #1 is the perfect intro to this album, with an aggressive blitzkrieg attack that nonetheless has plenty of cold, undulating melody. The production is nice and crisp, but not too cleaned up.
KRYPTAMOK are not afraid to add synth and keyboard for extra melody, but they generally add it in just the right amount. Track #8 was one of my favorites, with the addition of flute and a folky feel, yet still archetypal black metal. I could have done without the boring Finnish monologue that starts Track #5, though. And the title track itself seems to wander unfocused in the icefields a bit.
I would guess that anybody who liked the more refined black metal of the late 90’s will appreciate KRYPTAMOK’s classically frozen sound. A good mixture of melody and evil prevails for the most part.
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