Part of a new breed of tech death merchants, whose bruising technicality is never less than awe inspiring, Cryptic Shift’s ascension to the upper echelons of the genre is all but assured by their deft combination of searing musicianship and a high-brow concept that makes the album a mesmerising work best heard as a complete piece. Boasting just five tracks spread over nearly eighty minutes, it’s clear that the band are operating far outside the normal metal paradigm and, with only two songs clocking in under the ten-minute mark and a further two weighing in at twenty and thirty minutes respectively, this is surely not an album for those with a diminished attention span.
The album opens with the dizzying jazz of Cryogenically frozen. Expertly played, you might be forgiven for thinking you’ve dropped a Jeff Beck CD into the player by mistake, at least until a coruscating double kick assault permeates the rippling guitar, driving the track inevitably towards the dense death metal that makes up the bulk of the album’s runtime. Even here, however, it’s not too easy to follow, with the stabbing riffs and ever-shifting time signatures mixing up elements of Death, Rings Of Saturn, Jeff Beck, and Botch. Yet, while it may be an immensely technical work, Cryogenically Frozen places the song first and foremost in the hierarchy, ensuring that the listener is not left baffled by a technically astonishing but emotionally cold piece of work.
Rather more of a mountain to climb is Stratocumulus Evergaol. A thirty-minute epic, it is a brave band (or at least one making a very firm statement of intent) who drop such an epic in pole position. However, with Cryptic Shift once again enjoying the free-flowing spirit of jazz, the track takes its time to form, the semi-spoken word elements helping to drive the concept forward, even as the band explore the outer reaches of the jazz and extreme metal firmament.
It’s not all highfalutin jazz-death. With the atmosphere established, Crytic Shift are free to explore a wealth of different genres, which they gleefully do. From a brief foray into black metal reminiscent of Emperor to lengthy art rock passages that sound like Sonic Youth being battered into submission by Darkthrone, it’s a remarkable exploration that, while lacking the immediacy that some may want from their metal, more than makes up for it with an arrangement that boasts both immense depth and incredible skill. Assuming you make it far enough into this musical hall of mirrors, there are even moments of beauty, as the band allow the music to ebb and flow in tandem with the narrative.
Not for the weak willed, Stratocumulus Evergaol necessarily requires a certain commitment on the part of the listener, but it is hardly time ill-spent and, for those willing to lose themselves within Cryptic Shift’s dense world, it is a track you’ll find yourself revisiting time and again. Indeed, so immense is the track in scope and so beautifully constructed that, were it the sole composition on the record, you’d hardly feel short changed. It is a genuine masterpiece, and it leaves you entirely in awe of both the band’s ability and ambition. However, such is the band’s commitment, that there’s plenty more to come.
Following such an epic, the ten-minute Hyperspace Topography practically flies by. While not exactly what you’d call accessible, by contrast to the stunning twists and turns of its forebear, it is a relatively straight-forward death metal piece that nods to both Opeth and Obituary, its riffs a case study in carefully structured dissonance.
Similarly, Hexagonal Eyes (Diverity Trepaphymasyzm) keeps the runtime pared back to the merest ten minutes, although the track is so washed in atypical noise as to appear beamed in from another world. Within its darkened realm, you’ll find nods to Blood Mountain-era Mastadon, Obituary, and Death, but once again, Cryptic Shift have done an impressive job of making their influences their own. The result – a dynamic, progressively inclined outpouring that takes draws everything from death metal to jazz into its increasingly elliptical orbit.
The album wraps up with another epic. Clocking in at twenty-minutes, Overspace Supertime is another remarkable exploration of the unknown. With the frantic Hyperspace Topography and Hexagonal Eyes having comprehensively rearranged the listener’s synapses, it comes as no small relief that the track opens with just over a minute of ambient jazz, soothing the fevered brow before the band throw in a riff of such sublime potency, you find yourself checking your vital organs to make sure nothing has been inadvertently punctured.
Like Stratocumulus Evergaol, Overspace Supertime is an act of grand imagination, the band exploring the vast realms of extremity with all the intensity of sonic Shackletons. There’s so much here that the album will keep you listening and guessing for months, the band never failing to repay the determination of the curious.
Honestly, Overspace & Supertime is the sort of album that you simply don’t expect from a band on a major label these days. More of an art project than an album in the traditional sense, it was clearly a labour of love for the members, and it stands as a unique entity in the death metal firmament. Far, far more than simply the sum of its influences, Overspace & Supertime is an ambitious work that restores the faith that not everything is dictated by some fucking algorithm. Death metal has a new champion – Cryptic Shift are absolutely bloody essential. 10/10
