No bait and switch, no genre tourism, and no delicate handling on the latest album by Bristol-based swampy death metal band Cryptworm, who have been out and about for a few years now aiming to convince you of their obsession with filth and all things rotten. I've kept these guys within listening range since their debut Spewing Mephitic Putridity in 2022, and interest just went on growing with Oozing Radioactive Vomition shortly after, both albums being convincingly listenable on repeat without stretching the genre's limits. Blending the rawness of Autopsy with the elasticity of Demilich, the band brings forth a recognizable approach, formidable when done well, and that's exactly what one gets with their third effort, Infectious Pathological Waste.
Getting past the gruesomely beautiful cover art and the tracklist that reads as a kind of blackly comedic taxonomy of bodily catastrophe (often encountered in these woods), the music is more considered than than the nomenclature implies. With a coherent, almost constant flow of malformed chunks of riffs, old-school death metal groove and tempo magic, Cryptworm ditch the idea of surprising you completely and collude to leave you gasping from all the well-set grotesquerie. I am in favor of the record's production especially compared to Oozing Radioactive Vomition, which makes this paradoxically accessible, as if one would walk in an abattoir kept in order. Vocal structure is completely torn apart in Tibor Hanyi's possibly anatomically inadvisable manner of spewing words on these tracks, yet it's one of the album's instant highlights.
I particularly enjoyed the times the band shamelessly embraced an almost bouncy flair to the already thick riffs, like in "Maimed and Gutted", opener "Gallons of Molten Hominal Goo" or the middle of "Gastrointestinal Seepage". Middle-paced hammering like in "Emanations of Corporeal Pyosis" or the self-titled track feel right any time they surface, but I always opt for speed and bludgeon, e.g. on "Drowning in Purulent Excrementia" or the best track of Infectious Pathological Waste, "Embedded with Parasitic Larvae". Cryptworm knows their pustulant death metal inside and out, sometimes overstate their fixation on sickening grooves, but it never plateaus.
Enjoying this could be entirely up to whether the listener thinks familiarity is a virtue or a flaw, yet the album is straightforward, deceptively nuanced, and undeniably catchy all around. Cryptworm's sensibility towards death metal's legends still comes across in a form that feels their own, and they don't even strive for reaching a peak in the traditional sense. I can't argue further than relaying how enjoyable I find this approach, and how well the band treats it, maintaining the nauseating pressure as it was on Oozing Radioactive Vomition, with an even better sound. Beware, as you know what you're getting into.
Release: March 27th, 2026 | Me Saco un Ojo Records
Rating: 4 out of 5
Store: Bigcartel
Interview with the band from 2023, before the release of their second album:
ReplyDeletehttps://arsoncafe.blogspot.com/2023/10/amorphous-transmutations-interview-with.html