Krypts - Cadaver Circulation (2019)^{Release ID: 10476}

The dank and murky vision captured on the album cover acts as a great representation of the fetid death metal that lies within the six tracks on offer on Krypts 2019 offering.  Hailing from Finland the band retain that classic Finnish death metal style, producing a cavernous and expansive sound that seems to fill all corners of the room when listening to the album.  Far from being new to the game the band do seem to have hit their stride though on this their third full-length release in ten years of recorded output.  There’s a real sense of consistency to these tracks all showing an agility for songwriting that you’d expect from a band who have been working on material for a decade.

For an album with only six tracks the record feels longer than the thirty seven minutes that make up its runtime.  There’s a vastness to the structures of each of these songs that allows each track sufficient space to build and grow in stature without ever outstaying their welcome.  Not always sticking to an atmospheric or looming build that eventually gives way to a gargantuan riff the album shows variety in pace, tempo and structure also.  This isn’t easy to achieve over a relatively short runtime and with a sub-genre of death metal that has a particular form and sound that is so well established.  But the fact is that Cadaver Circulation delivers both in its adherence to a recognised sound and also in its innovation that stays away from the experimental side of “new” and just relies on applying that innovation in the form of solid songwriting.

I don’t think there’s a duff track on here and remarkably there’s little in the way of repetition.  Yes, there’s an aspect of similarity between most tracks (it’s part of the success of the record) but I feel you can easily draw clear divisions between tracks also and identify nuances of atmosphere and pacing at the same time.  I can’t think of many albums in recent history that have retained such memorability in my head after so few listens.  Four listens in and I can recite a lot of this in my head to the point I can write this review without the album playing and that to me is the sign of a good record.

Despite the relevance of it I am not a fan of the artwork and that’s all that shaved a half mark off an otherwise superb album.