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Album Review: Cryptworm – Infectious Pathological Waste

Reviewed by Sam Jones

You look to the scores of metal festivals, home and abroad equally, and Cryptworm likely occupy a slot somewhere on a lineup. Formed in Bristol, United Kingdom back in 2014, Cryptworm have become stalwarts of the British extreme metal scene and a rising force in death metal globally. With their early years spewing forth a selection of EPs, a Demo, a Split, Cryptworm raised eyebrows with their debut album, 2022’s Spewing Mephitic Putridity, many people’s first taste of the band’s repugnant flair. They only built upon that foundation where a year later they unleashed Oozing Radioactive Vomition, a personal favourite of mine from 2023. Now slated for late March, Cryptworm return with their third album titled Infectious Pathological Waste. Whilst its Cryptworm’s third record, it is their first full length where each member has a credit on the preceding record. Given how well their last record was received and knowing the same chemistry is likely to be found herein I was very excited to get stuck in. Cryptworm are always a great act to see live and once again they’re backed by Me Saco Un Ojo Records.

What better way to kick off a new Cryptworm album than with the band’s signature putrid, heaving vocals? A bastion of all things defiled, Cryptworm’s vocals seem to have deepened even greater as their vocal performance, provided by the immovable and band founder Tibor Hanyi, claws through the filth and detritus of sapient existence in the pursuit of ever fouler soundscapes. Where one experienced bludgeoning aggression across their past releases, this new work sees Cryptworm completely surrender to all things unspeakable, where no syllable is legible and vocal structure itself rots to pieces. Yet it only feels to be a natural progression of Cryptworm’s development as they strive for increasingly reviled and repugnant places to strike from.

Curiously, the band have opted for an approach to songwriting that sees the blocky and punching style of death metal previously adopted fall sway to a more free-flowing style where the impact isn’t so intense but enables easier access to follow along. Now, some could say the band have done so to allow wider accessibility to broaden the fanbase, but in decreasing the intensity of the impact herein Cryptworm aren’t barreling down on us so heavily, which in turn means newer audiences can come back to Infectious Pathological Waste knowing a return trip won’t incur punishment. In addition, their riffs exhibit a peculiarly bouncing, dancing flair as one imagines themselves swaying to and fro before the band lay the power out. Pits and walls of death continue to break out in their multitudes; there’s more breathing room present but not to the record’s detriment and may become the band’s, oddly, most accessible work yet.