By looking at the cover, the first guess how Cryogenocide could sound like is not "brutal death metal", eh?! But that's their thing, and it is technically tinted, which is much easier to guess via the artwork. This band hailing from southwestern Finland have been operating for 5 years now, but this debut EP actually came out in the year of their formation. See, three guys out of four played in Atretic Intestine, but decided to call it quits in 2016 and come back under the moniker of Cryogenocide.

They went heavier with this, to say the least. The rumble reminiscent of white dwarf star about to explode into a supernova is caused by absolutely massive bass guitar. Meaty yet biting rhythm guitar sound is hungry, the bass drum is like a particle cannon while snappy snare drum sounds exactly like a snappy snare in brutal death metal should sound like. There are out-of-this-world bass and guitar emanations that turn into symphonies of sickness, with nimble fret-board runs on both instruments; not very far from Dying Fetus' style.

The album starts with pretty straight bashing, but even on the opener, some out-there stuff is heard. However, 'Sickening Solar Mutations' (a very suitable title for a song if there's ever been one!) hits at least warp factor 9 point 2; it really does sound eerily alien, being an aural equivalent to LV-426 between juggernauting with its different guitar tones and slower passages. The third song is a show of some heavy groove and insane bass-robatics. In all, this is quite a varying 12 minutes of technical yet groovy death metal.

The vocals sound like an astronaut who has vomited into his helmet and is gurgling and barking the gospel of spatial destruction, again highly reminding of Dying Fetus. Sometimes they are effected with weird warp-sound, making one think "it's dead space" (yes, could be written with capital first letters as well)... The lyrics are about spatial forces destroying human beings.

They released the single 'Neural Biopsy' in early 2020, and it is definitely another jumpy song, being a good promise of future. But alas, since then they have disappeared into the vastness of space, sadly, and no distress signals have been heard. Destination: Unknown...

Rating: 8 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
07/08/2022 19:44