Fans of niche metal genres are fickle beasts. They can be champions of your art, touting it to anyone who would hear, screaming praise from the mountaintop, until you release something they find scant approval. Then they will turn on you with the same ferocity and chuck every ounce of goodwill you’ve accrued. One album with a step outside the expected, and the “fans” turn rabid with equal passion.

Of course, I am talking about the Canadian tech-death metal bruisers, Cryptopsy.

The Montreal gang was celebrated as one of the most viscerally entertaining technical death metal bands in the infant stages of the genre. With records like Blasphemy Made Flesh and Once Was Not being praised, and None So Vile being raised to technical death metal apotheosis, it seemed that the band had carved out a unique sound that would stand the test of time. All of that came to a screeching halt with 2008’s The Unspoken King, where lineup changes and influences drawn from more modern death metal and deathcore genres caused fans to decry that record as a universal failure vocally. With their self-titled record, Cryptopsy and more recently, 2023’s As Gomorrah Burns, the band has been working hard to recover its lost glory. Can they shake off their maligned misstep with their latest release, An Insatiable Violence, or are they doomed to ignominy for all time?

The first released single, “Until There’s Nothing Left”, spares no time, takes no prisoners, and punches you in the teeth with the modern iteration of Cryptopsy’s intense flavor of technical and brutal death metal. With blazing drums and dizzying riffs, this already feels like more focused chaos when compared to the overall impression of As Gomorrah Burns. With chunky bass adding just enough spice to the grooves, the single feels fresh yet familiar and heralds good things for the rest of the record.

An Insatiable Violence lives up to its namesake within the opening seconds of “The Nimis Adoration”, with the near-wackadoodle guitar riffs that without the sheer brutality of the rest of the band, would almost feel comical. The band also plays with the interplay between devastating melody and cacophonous dissonance on “Dead Eyes Replete” and “Our Great Deception”. However, my favorite track is “The Art of Emptiness”, where Cryptopsy slows down its ferocity just a tad, to focus on bouncy grooves and catchy death metal-esque breakdowns more akin to Dying Fetus or Suffocation than anything ‘core that would remind folks of the dreaded The Unspoken King. With an almost Lord Worm-like spoken whisper over menacing blackened melodies, the song plays with different melodic flavors and tempos, to keep listeners on their toes and not get lost in the blinding daze. The record doesn’t lose steam even in its closing tracks with “Embrace the Nihility” with its Decapitated-esque break (the name also harkens back to the band) and album closer “Malicious Needs” being a sludgy, mucky beater.

At eight tracks and just over thirty minutes of material, An Insatiable Violence doesn’t overstay its welcome. There is no fat on this record, just lean mean meat! While there is always an innate need to be surprised with new elements to the songwriting machine, it does not hurt to sharpen existing tropes to a more coherent product, which is what Cryptopsy has done with this record. The production on the record has also improved by leaps and bounds over the manically muddy chaos of As Gomorrah Burns. It maintains the clarity that is expected from modern death metal, without compromising on raw cuts, allowing enough space for the guitars, bass, drums, and vocals to feel crisp and distinguishable.

I believe Cryptopsy attempted to have songwriting callbacks to their earlier records, and those facets are discernible on some of the arrangements, the riffs, and the general cadence of the songs. Nobody can doubt the expert musicianship and the A-game that each member of the Quebecois Quartet of Quartering brings to the table. Guitarist Christian Donaldson (who also produced the record) has one of the most unique approaches to riff writing that has defined the modern era of Cryptopsy, incorporating jagged mania to his slide-ridden tremolo-picked riffs. Some of his electronic glitchiness is missed on this record, assumedly in the band’s effort to go for a more straightforward, no-nonsense product. Bassist Olivier Pinard (recently ex-Cattle Decapitation, boooo!) is front and center on this record, with his thumpy basslines underlining fresh grooves to the chaos unfolding. Drummer and founding member Flo Mounier continues to be an otherworldly demon behind the kit. Among the hardest hitters in the genre, there is a sense of sheer physicality that permeates from his drum arrangements that adds a certain sense of insatiable violence to any Cryptopsy song. Vocalist Matt McGachyis usually where the fans are divided, as his introduction to the band is seen by many as the turning point of the band’s trajectory. This is an unfair assessment of raw vocal talent as McGachy is giving us his absolute best with every record, and An Insatiable Violence is no different. With nearly Corpsegrinder-esque cadence to his low-register growls and feral screams, his vocal textures only add to the general mania of the modern Cryptopsy writing machine.

An Insatiable Violence continues Cryptopsy’s redemption arc. A solid slab of frenetic, technical brutal death metal, this record should go a long way to alleviate fans who may have lost hope in this band’s ability to write furious death metal.