A person spends all day building a machine, only for it to torture them all through the night. As if that wasn't twisted enough, they like it. In fact, they like being tortured so much that, come morning, they wake up rejuvenated, eager to tweak the machine until it runs perfectly in their mind. This is the nocturnal vision that inspired Cryptopsy's ninth full-length nightmare. "Beware the spotlight", warns vocalist Matt McGachy before "Dead Eyes Replete" flashes before your eyes with a skull crushing breakdown.
An Insatiable Violence mirrors our toxic relationship with social media, but while eerily prescient, the album is influenced by the many mutations that have defined the band's Hall of Fame discography. Inspired by a mukbang gone horribly wrong, ravenous opener "The Nimis Adoration" is a smorgasbord of gut-busting blasts, Christian Donaldson's fishhook riffs and a heavy helping of pit-pleasing groove.
Cryptopsy recognize that not every brutal technical death metal band sticks around long enough to win a Canadian Grammy 30 years into their career. The cover for An Insatiable Violence was created by the late, great Martin Lacroix, who would growl with unholy delight over the freshly fetid depths of McGachy's false chord scream. Another former vocalist returns on "Embrace the Nihility" to stomp out any whispering doubts of his supremacy. But despite having claimed the crown as the most vile band in death metal on only their second stab in the studio, Cryptopsy are still pushing the limits of extremity.
The album's lead single bumps and grinds to the oddball bounce of Olivier Pinard's gruesome bass slaps - and yet, at its core "Until There's Nothing Left" stakes its claim as Cryptopsy's biggest earworm. Even Flo Mounier - who literally wrote the book on extreme metal drumming - has honed new techniques to keep the blasphemy of An Insatiable Violence fresh. For its finishing move, "Malicious Needs" slithers to a crawl before ascending like a bat into a blackened cloud of smoke. Bow to the new vileness from extreme metal royalty.
