Canada’s most extreme metal band, Cryptopsy returns with their 9^th full-length album, An Insatiable Violence.  I have been a fan since the very early days.  When I joined Internal Bleeding in 1994, Cryptopsy were just gaining steam, and we played a string of shows together with them in Canada and some fests here in the USA.  Their Blasphemy Made Flesh album is still my favorite of theirs, most likely due to its 1994 release, and the above I mentioned.  The band was incredibly gracious to us, and vocalist Lord Worm and I bonded immensely – super awesome dude. I even ate some worms with him.  Fast forward all these years later with all the lineup-switches with vocalists, and I thought the band lost its footing after Once Was Not – I love that album.  It was not until As Gomorrah Burns erupted in 2023 that I took notice of the band again as drummer Flo and the band put forth a hellaciously strong album that pretty much had me picking up my jaw from the ground.  Cryptopsy were back, baby.

Not only have they released an even stronger follow-up with An Insatiable Violence, but while there were sprinklings of this on the previous album, this release takes us back to the Mike DiSalvo-vocal fronted band from the extraordinary 1998 Whisper Supremacy and 2000 And Then You’ll Beg releases.  Mike and I go back to his Infestation years, and I always felt his vocals with Cryptopsy were beyond ferocious.  Suffice it to say.

The start of “…And Then It Passes” off And Then You’ll Beg, with the spoken part:  “You hear that?  That is the sound of inevitability”, then right into the ferocity blasting, may be one of the most intense moments in death metal history.  So let’s skip right to track 7, where Mike has some guest vocals on “Embrace the Nihility”.  The song erupts with an unrelenting blast, and vocalist Matt McGachy harnesses Mike’s delivery in many ways from those albums throughout the album, as well as the music taking us back to that time period.  High velocity blasting and Flo prove time and time again why he is untouchable behind the kit.  Around the two-minute mark, there is a delightful groove section taking us back to Whisper Supremacy with its almost hardcore-ish groove, and this part is insanely heavy and most of all violent.  The tight gravity blasting moments of Flo are insane, and Christian Donaldson’s guitar tone has a severe bite to it, and Olivier Pinard is thumping on the bass guitar.  Mike lending his talents to this song is a bonus!

I want to take a pause of silence to give respect to Martin Lacroix (RIP), who was the vocalist for Cryptopsy for a very short time and appeared on None So Live.  He passed away last year, and the band used his artwork for this album cover – that is sooooo awesome.  If we are to rewind to the beginning of this album, the band could not have picked a stronger song to open with “The Nimis Adoriation”. Starting with ferocious blasts that will rip your head off and kick it down the street, this song has moments of groove, blasting, and the plucking bass guitar is heard in all its glory – something Cryptopsy has always used to great effect, and after the groove, back into the monster heavy blasting.  At the 2.15 moment, we are treated to melody and some harmonies with a cool guitar solo, then back into the double pounding ferocious heavy beat and some killer drum rolls, then seamlessly into gravity blasting.  Matt’s vocals are the best he’s done on any Cryptopsy album – soo killer.

“Until There’s Nothing Left” was the first single released for the album, and this is not radio-friendly folks.  Beginning with monster blasting then a variety of tempo shifts, this song has unbridled chaos all over it.  The double bass is triggered, that’s how drums are produced nowadays, but folks Flo can hit those.  I’ve seen him up close drumming and was on the side of the stage in Canada near his kit in 1994 and let me just say – mind blowing. Super great guitar solo towards the end of the song that traverses into more blasting madness.

If you had been missing the Cryptopsy sound from 1998-200, this album will bring you back to that era.  And also incorporate the band’s first 2 classic albums Blasphemy Made Flesh and None So Vile, since those influences and sounds are also time stamped on this sucker.  The production is great as is the mix.  Clear, precise, and the drums do not drown out the other dudes when those blasts happen.  There are tons of time changes and quite honestly, in terms of sheer ferocity, there is nothing remotely close in 2025 that is touching this as of me writing this review.  An Insatiable Violence is the most perfect name for this album – beyond devastating!

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