Cryptopsy

Cryptopsy, a Canadian death metal outfit distinguished by its unrelenting sonic aggression and exacting technical precision, arose from Montreal’s thriving extreme metal milieu in 1992. The group’s first studio album, Blasphemy Made Flesh, arrived in 1995 and immediately marked the band as a formidable presence in the metal underground. Their following expanded in 1998 with Whisper Supremacy, the first release on Century Media, an imprint they stayed with until signing with Nuclear Blast for their eighth studio album, As Gomorrah Burns, which appeared in 2023.

Origins of the project reach back to the late 1980s, when drummer Mike Atkin, guitarist Steve Thibault, vocalist Dan “Lord Worm” Greening, and bassist John Todds performed under the name Necrosis. Departures by Atkin and Todds triggered a rebranding; Lord Worm and Thibault recruited Kevin Weagle and Dave Galea to operate as Cryptopsy. The new lineup quickly dominated Montreal’s death metal circuit after issuing the 1993 demo Ungentle Exhumation and later gained European exposure by signing with Germany’s Invasion Records the next year. A reconstituted lineup of Lord Worm, guitarists Jon Levasseur and Miguel Roy, bassist Eric Langlois, and drummer Flo Mounier recorded the ferocious Blasphemy Made Flesh in 1995. After moving to Sweden’s Wrong Again Records in 1996, the band released the eight-track EP None So Vile, which preceded Lord Worm’s exit due to health concerns. Ex-Infestation frontman Mike Disalvo replaced him with Lord Worm’s approval, and the revised group delivered its third album, Whisper Supremacy, in 1998, marking their Century Media debut. Disalvo departed after 2000’s And Then You’ll Beg; Martin LaCroix assumed live vocal duties, appearing on the sole Cryptopsy release to feature him, the 2003 live album None So Live, captured at The Medley in Montreal the previous year.

Lord Worm returned for 2005’s Once Was Not yet left again once touring ended. Matt McGachy joined on vocals before the release of 2008’s The Unspoken King, an album that introduced a more melodic deathcore style. The band reclaimed its signature technical death metal approach on the self-titled seventh studio album issued in 2012, then followed with the EPs The Book of Suffering – Tome I in 2015 and The Book of Suffering – Tome II in 2018. A deal with Nuclear Blast was finalized in 2022, leading directly to the 2023 release of As Gomorrah Burns.