France’ Cryoxyd have been on and off again since 2000 and never released anything until this debut album, This World We Live In… Label owner, Alex Dolorem sent me this promo a while ago, and I have been listening to it ever since, but according to metal-archives there have been major line-up shifts. And the band is pretty much all new as of this review, with the majority of the band exiting recently.

When looking at this album cover, I was like this is gonna be some techy type of stuff and I was not too far off. Think, early 90’s tech/progressive death metal. Think Death on their Human and Spiritual Healing albums, alongside Pestilence – Testimony of the Ancients, that sorta sound, especially Pestilence in the vocal and progressive death metal department, as well as Gorguts – their first two albums and Atheist The album opener and album closer title track act as an intro and outro so since both add nothing to the album I will skip talking about them.

“Day After Day”, after the intro, erupts with astonishing riffing with nods to the above-mentioned bands. In some respects, if this album had had a Dan Seagrave album cover and you told me this was some remastered forgotten gem from 1991, I would have believed you. Those Pestilence moments are strong, and there is some of that jazz fusion stuff they did on Spheres right here on the opening track, as well as some of the newer Pestilence, heavier stuff they started to do on their comeback album Resurrection Macabre. Those heavy start and stop bouncy riffs – that Patrick crafts so well in Pestilence. This opening song has guitar solos, ethereal,a nd they punch home rather well.

“Dismal Fate” starts in a Cynic sort of way with the atmosphere, and then the mid-paced, heavier riffing takes center stage. The double bass drums sound monstrous, and this groove could have a bit of a pit to it, come to think of it. The tempo shifts to a slower moment with guitar soloing and very progressive moments, seen on the Human album by Death. This is evident in the speedy double bass moments, poly-rhythmic drumming, and crunchy and fast guitar riffing. Simply terrific.

“Trapped in a Mirror” has a plethora of kick-ass galloping headbanging moments, which switch to that mid-paced fast double bass and killer guitar riffing. More of the jam session jazz fusion erupts until the isolated guitar riff comes in. A Holy Shit moment, with the galloping erupting, with a great pinch harmonic. This rhythm section is on fire during this moment. A guitar solo steers things in a more atmospheric, slower ambient section, before taking us to the gallop once again. This album should be a guitar player’s wet dream as the plethora of quality solos all over the place are extraordinary. The bass guitar is pretty prominent here as well.

“Mindless Human Form” has a monstrous galloping opening sequence. Vocals ignite and the tempo shifts from slow, then back to the gallop, with the bass guitar strumming shining. The song becomes exceedingly slow, only to get back into that fast galloping madness, then to be greeted by a cool vintage type of Luc Lemay-inspired growl. The fast past gallop continues, becoming more ferocious, then slowing back down again, until the outro ends things.

Cryoxyd captures a wonderful nostalgic death metal moment, and This World We Live In…would have fit perfectly on the Roadrunner Records roster in the 1989-1993 era. The band captures the essence of the above mentioned bands in utter magnificence. I was not prepared to hear an album with this many guitar solos; they are all over the place here. This is vintage progressive tech death metal, and at times, Cryoxyd, becomes a little too heady for its own good. The talent displayed on this album is jaw-dropping and can be a bit much for some people. Now we are not talking 1,000 BPM tech death metal; I am speaking of some of the non-linear, proggy, poly-rhythmic, jazz fusion elements. I find it amazing, since there are many catchy elements, and this album transports me literally to 1991 when I listened to Testimony of the Ancients, from Pestilence, and fell to the ground. Excellent album, and Cryoxyd is an exciting new band. Get this now!

[Visit the band's website]

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