Year Of Metal #086: Cryptopsy - None More Vile
According to Wikipedia, this one’s not just death metal, not just technical death metal, but brutal death metal. I can’t say I’ve come across too much death metal that wasn’t, at least in parts, rather brutal, but it is nice to know what you’re getting yourself in for. Of course, when the band is called Cryptopsy (using the ur-metal band font on the cover, no less), and the album’s called None More Vile, it’d be folly to expect anything less than a horrid time, and Cryptopsy deliver on this 1996 record.
Thankfully, when I came to hear this sharp shock of an LP, I was just about up for it. They go all in on the evil and this is a relentless 32 minutes of snarling noise, which every now and then is just what the doctor ordered. After an opening bestial roar, there are a few seconds of silence, as if the band are malevolently luring you into the speaker to check if something’s wrong. Then, all hell breaks loose. To give them their due, the instrumentation on None So Vile almost entirely sounds fantastic. The drums and guitars, especially, I would wager had a big impact on Slipknot. The percussion has a great clatter to it that provides a lightness of touch no matter how frenetic the playing, while the guitars are uber distorted but still impressively clear.
The vocals, meanwhile (performed by, checks notes, Lord Worm), are just barking - often literally. On “Crown Of Horns”, the only thing I can compare it to is the sound they make on South Park when a character is throwing up. Later, “Dead And Dripping” sees Worm regress into his animal form - he’s near enough saying “woof woof woof” into the microphone at times here. I don’t mind it at all, I should note - whether intentionally or not, the performance gives a sense of playfulness to these hard punching songs. Cryptopsy get serious at times, like on “Dead And Dripping”’s excellent, complex solo - but I feel I can only take the singing for what it is, i.e. gritty texture and/or a descent into madness.
My favourite song by some stretch is “Phobophile”. Firstly, there’s a pretty (if Spinal Tap-esque) piano performance at the top by way of respite - a lot of metal bands like to do this moment of peace thing, but it feels more earned here than it does on most records. When Cryptopsy dig in, though, they do so with the best riffs in their arsenal, Eric Langlois’ bass in particular sounding terrific. The hooks and grooves on this record don’t tend to stick around for long - indeed they’ve piled through the next four ideas by the 90 second mark - so you’ve got to take what you can get. On this track in particular, though, one cool part follows another. I particularly like when things space out a little, relatively speaking, towards the midpoint and tightly picked guitar parts roll around each other in tense, suffocating fashion.
Without wishing to posture, I’m slightly surprised to see None So Vile held up as an especially extreme record. It’s certainly uncompromising and, yes, brutal, but for my money the difficulty level of the LP is tempered at least a touch by how fantastic everything sounds. Whether or not the band are setting out to give listeners a hard time, the care and attention plus the consistently fantastic production makes this a surprisingly palatable half hour and change.
