(written by Islander)

Imagery of sharp edges is a recurring feature in descriptions of the music and other aesthetics of the French death metal band CRYOXYD that have been circulated by Dolorem Records, which will release their debut album on December 12th.

The notes are described as “shards of bone” and the riffs as “blade-like”; their lyrics and visuals are described as “a shattered mirror held up to the abyss”; their stance is characterized as “neither provocative nor comforting, but surgical”; “Art as a Scalpel” sums it up.

The band’s intent is to create a conceptual artistic structure and identity devoted to the “autopsy of human collapse”, to confront “systemic dehumanization, collective madness, cognitive technodictatorship, and the moral failure of civilization” — “a sonic and visual manifesto against the illusion of progress, an X-ray of modern alienation’s mechanisms.”

How they seek to achieve these goals on their debut album This World We Live In… is through a formulation of music rooted in the technical death metal of the 1990s, drawing inspiration from the likes of Death (during the Human and Spiritual Healing eras), Pestilence, Brutality, and Morbid Angel, but as you’ll discover from the multi-dimensional album track we’re premiering today, they’ve put their own spin on those revered precedents. Continue reading »