Review by Carl on September 1, 2024.

Because I liked Cryptivore's full-length well enough, I decided to check a bit further into the band's history, only finding just this one demo. Because these are usually hard to find if there is a physical copy to begin with (being the pretentious arse I am, I don't do digital), and if you're unlucky, expensive to get a hold of. The Cryptivore demo has seen quite a few reissues by this time, but the version I'm reviewing here has a couple of extra tracks, so I'm definitely going with this one!

In style, Cryptivore plays a pretty straightforward form of old-school death metal, keeping a firm middle ground between old-school Swedeath and late 80's/early 90's death metal/grindcore. I get a very Dismember/Entombed feeling from the riffage on use, but for the most part, I have the impression that a lot of influence comes from stuff like early Grave, Necrony, and the first albums by Therion and Carbonized, with a certain Defecation and "Mentally Murdered" era Napalm Death feel being not too far away either. The songs are kept compact yet varied, establishing an urgent and energetic feel throughout. The music is riff-based for sure (one might almost be able to hum along, as it were), and is underpinned by a variety of thrash beats and blasting velocity to give the material a lot of drive. The guitar sound is thick and heavy with just enough Swedeath bite to it to make it crunchy as fuck, without veering off into Boss HM-2 copycat territory, which I can totally appreciate. Completing the old school vibe are the deep growling vocals delivering the lines in a suitably gruff way, while some subtle guitar harmonics add short melodic touches to the whole, like in a track such as "Abhorrent Vivisection". It's nothing the average death metal aficionado hasn't heard before, but it gets the job done in a way decent fashion, going in as smooth as a cold glass of orange juice on a hot summer day.

The production is decent for most parts, with the guitar sound being pretty damn neat as mentioned, but there is a bit of a hair in the butter, though. As is the case with a lot of one-man outfits, the drums are of the programmed kind, and yeah, it shows. The patterns are good, laying a solid base for the music, but they sound so plastic and sterile here, it's as if the percussion is handled by a robot that somehow developed an ass with a stick in it. As a whole, it isn't a disaster or anything, but once I heard it, there was no way of unhearing this. It's a small snag on a further solid and certainly compact offering of old-school death that deserves to be heard.

This is a decent demo that manages to push a fair few of the right buttons with me, with it being absolutely on point in both material and execution. Just as with most demos, there is always that bit of room for improvement, and Cryptivore certainly did that on their debut full-length. If you haven't yet, go check that out and then complete the picture with this demo. It may not reinvent the wheel, but it's solid stuff worthy the attention, for sure.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10