Review by Vinny for Kryptan - Violence, Our Power (2025)

My high hopes for Kryptan’s debut full length are certainly met by the horrific edge to album opener ‘The Unheard Plea from Thousands of Broken Hands (Intro)’. The pleading voice in the background of the track sets off the old nerve-endings into a jarring frenzy immediately. The intro track then drops into the first proper track on the record and those guitars certainly make their presence felt early on. However, it does not take long for things to start to unravel. The drums remain audible but unintrusive throughout and as a result come across as lacking in power. By comparison the bass is virtually non-existent in the mix, which instead sees the synths, guitars and vocals get centre stage.

The main issue I have with Violence, Our Power though is the vocals. Whilst not horrendous by any means, I do question their suitability on more than one occasion. There are obvious Behemoth comparators in terms of the vocals, especially when the vocalist here deploys a kind of strained shouting style (‘The Miracle Inside’) which is not a bad thing, but I just do not feel that Alexander Högbom has the pipes for it to be honest. On the more grim, black metal style vocals he is fine, but this attempt at variation sounds a tad amateur to my ears.

This strained description is applicable to the whole record in all honesty. It strikes me that the music is being forced through something to get to the unappealing outcome we are presented with. The mix just sounds off to me, like it is stopping me getting at the true content that the band intended to share. My experience somehow feels muted and like I have constantly missed something. I do not sense that they are any artist capability issues here, just a not too kind mix job. That withstanding I still do not believe that the vocals fit the direction of the band overall. Stick to bm croaks guys, you sound much better.