Here’s an interesting premise for a future Top 10 list: Most important non-metal musicians to metal. Granted, I’m sure we could make a list of 10 classical composers alone who’d fit this bill and be done with it, but let’s say we’re limiting that category to 3. Allan Holdsworth would have to fill one of those other 7 slots. The jazz fusion/progressive rock pioneer singlehandedly remade music theory in his own image, like a god amongst men. To put it in perspective, Eddie Van Halen branded him as “so damned good that I can’t cop anything”. Eddie fucking Van Halen said that. Meshuggah, Gojira, Atheist, Gorguts: Any band who’s ever attempted what could best be described as the musical equivalent of a math equation? You have Holdsworth to thank.
Had Holdsworth he not passed in 2017, it’s safe to assume that at some point in the ’20s, he would’ve dipped his toes into the pool of metal (assuming you don’t consider Tempest’s eponymous ’73 debut to be metal already, by ’70s standards). What would that have sounded like? Well, chances are it would sound A LOT like Overspace & Supertime, the sophomore album from English tech-bent maniacs, Cryptic Shift. As many of you know, my relationship with tech death, and technical metal as a whole, is a complex one. The bands of the vein that I love, I love. And the ones that I don’t, well, the less that’s said, the better. With this in mind, I approached Cryptic Shift’s latest release with a healthy dose of skepticism. 5 songs over the course of 80 minutes? Oh boy…
While the cynic (no pun intended) in me prepared for an hour plus snooze-fest, it was only a few minutes into the opening “Cryogenically Frozen” that I figured that would be impossible. Why? Because this band fits so damn much into their brew of metal, that it’s literally impossible to shut your mind off and zone out if you tried. Seriously, try smoking a bowl to this album. You’ll end up in the emergency room with heart palpitations and shortness of breath. “Cryogenically Frozen” combines the cerebral jazz fusion of ’80s Holdsworth, ripping intensity of early Coroner, and pummeling death metal of the genre’s late ’80s demo era. And that’s only the beginning.
The two centerpieces of Overspace & Supertime, “Stratocumulus Evergaol” and the closing title track, both exceed 20 minutes in length, with the former teetering on a half hour. On these suites, if you will, Cryptic Shift do it all. You’ve got the sci-fit atmosphere of Nocturnus, musical virtuosity of Atheist, and unsettling dissonance of Gorguts all playing off of each other, interspersed with headbanger thrash outbursts from that era when thrash was metamorphosing into death, and again, these weirdo Holdsworth guitar phrases. You know, I’ve heard the term avant-garde metal tossed around to describe any band that sounds like it could’ve featured Mike Patton, when in reality, it’s glorified clown music. This, right here…THIS is avant-garde, baby.
Now for the million dollar question: Do I like it? Honestly, it’s too early to tell. I certainly don’t hate it, but for a band of Cryptic Shift’s nature, I tend to lean more towards acts like Sovereign and Dissimulator, if only because I relate more with their riff-based attack, even if delivered through a technical framework. On the contrary, I’ll also be the first to argue that Cryptic Shift’s sci-fi laden-sound boasts more precise focus and impact than that of Blood Incantation or other acts in this otherworldly realm. Music theory nerds and beanie-hated hipsters alike are chomping at the bit to crown this “metal album of the year” already. As for me, I’ll file it at the top of my uneasy listening mix, because easy listening it ain’t!
7 out of 10
Label: Metal Blade Records
Genre: Technical Death/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Atheist, Nocturnus, Cynic
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