(written by Islander)
It’s so nice to begin a new week at NCS by installing a piece of hellishly eye-catching cover art at the top of the page. We have an intricate layout of skull-headed abominations that seem to be feeding on their own intestines, plus spikes, tendrils, and a ghastly glowing light that signifies worse things might lie ahead. We bow in the direction of the artist Slimeweaver for creating such a ghoulish delight.
Even better, the album that the artwork adorns is itself a ghoulish delight, one that will hold special appeal for fans of deathless Swedish death metal, the cemetery spawn of such bands as Dismember, Entombed, Carnage, and Grave. That album will lead listeners Through The Bowels Of Ceaseless Dissonance, and our fiendish guides are the Swedish band Cryptorium.
What we have for you today is the premiere of a song called “Revolting Obsession” in advance of the October 30 album release by Transcending Obscurity Records.
This new album is Cryptorium’s second full-length, following 2024’s aptly named Descent Into Lunacy. We had the deviant pleasure of premiering a song from that one too. It made us greedy for a follow-up, which now we have.
Newer groups who seek to pay homage to those formidable names from the foundational days of Swedish death metal can’t tinker too much with the fundaments of the music, or it becomes… something else. But on the other hand, newer must offer something more, else they risk being cast aside by ardent listeners as mere clones. It’s a fine line to walk. Thankfully, Cryptorium acquit themselves very well — though “walking” isn’t what you’ll think of when you hear them.
Instead, as you listen to “Revolting Obsession“, it’s more likely you’ll imagine ravening horrors and congealing viscera. Following a creepy, stage-setting overture Cryptorium leap forward with bounding beats and snarling riffage that’s filthy in tone and gutting in impact. They augment those horrors with a feverishly quivering lead guitar that conjures visions of insectile feeding frenzies and gruff gutturals that cross the channels so as to gnaw separately on both of our ears.
The song’s opening phase is vicious and viscous, and it makes clear that appeals to reason will fall on deaf ears. But as foretold above, Cryptorium also slow the pace, lurching instead of bounding, and their distorted strings dismally moan and ooze the foulness of bodily rot. The music also miserably wails, as if it knows what’s coming.
And what comes is a violent convulsion in which the riffing generates a gruesomely ecstatic pulse, followed by one last galloping and hurtling attack, and one last sequence of grisly, macabre riffage.
The song is definitely a proud homage to a classic style. It’s got the filthy tones dialed in. It doesn’t try to get fancy with the drumming or the vocals. Its use of melody is restrained but effective in its conjuring of different horrors. And it quickly gets stuck in the head. What’s not to like?
CRYPTORIUM is:
Fabian Larsen: Guitars, Lyrics, Vocals
Knalle Arvidsson: Bass, Synthesizer, Vocals
Albin Holgersson: Drums, Vocals
Ludvig Carman: Guitar
T.O. will release Cryptorium’s new album on vinyl LP, jewelcase CD, and digital formats, with lots of related apparel and other merch. Pre-order via the links below. It comes recommended for fans of the afore-mentioned Dismember, Entombed, Carnage, and Grave, as well as Crawl, Feral, and Vomitheist.
Also below, we’ve included two previously released videos for the album tracks “Malodor” and “In Bitter Remorse“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://cryptorium-label.bandcamp.com/album/through-the-bowels-of-ceaseless-dissonance
http://us.tometal.com/
http://transcendingobscurity.aisamerch.com/
http://eu.tometal.com/
CRYPTORIUM:
https://facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552092476503
https://instagram.com/cryptorium_swe