
The musical shift from old-school death metal and death doom prompted innovational changes that now inject new life into their songs by enmeshing the brutal elements they have emphasized, creating atmosphere and molding it with technical guitars.
The use of atmosphere, however, is more focused on this third endeavor and the riffs boast a violent sound while the brutal drums push through the forefront. The songwriting extends beyond the previous works which is demonstrated on the eponymous track ‘We Belong In the Grave’. The tremolo guitar blazing with frantic drumming has the band hybridized to intense heaviness.
The drums dominate this record: the blast beats and speed allow it to stretch towards various sounds that pose musical changes from the guitar melodies spewing dissonance. Each riff on ‘Terminal Dais’ is layered to create dark tapestries of atmospheric nightmares swirling deeper into the aural maelstrom. It feels like you’re listening to an entirely new band.
‘Obliteration of the Impure’ injects claustrophobic heaviness the guitars are all texture and flow while the blasting section locks in on intense brutality. The album shifts between unhinged double bass and unbridled brutality to expand over the traditional formula.
‘Expulsion To Purgatory’ pulls the same gimmicks and, thus, the influence of modern death metal is noticeable. Even the ambient atmosphere and the swirling riffage provide a certain feeling of despair. The composition flows smoothly through extreme blast beats as the guitars incorporate plenty of dissonant chords and ambient elements to showcase new musical levels.
The hyper performance on ‘Undisillusioned’ crosses untrodden boundaries by the Lithuanian quintet. As a result, we get bombarded with turbulent bass and eerie experimental guitars. Crypts of Despair has offered something truly out of their ordinary scope and that is due to their wider musical experimentations.
For instance, the track ‘Seizures’ evokes the musical style of bands like Ulcerate. The swelling atmosphere is quite impressive, and despite the heaviness and brutality that paints a spine-tingling atmosphere, the guitar work conveys ambient chords. The straight-forward brutality provides a dynamic form when the drums collide with the droning quality and the endless barrages of the guitars. Yet between the respite from the turbulences and the extremity there is a breakdown of drumming sections on ‘Precipitous’.
The Lithuanians achieve a staggering sense of modern technical death metal and display an energetic and brutal amalgamation with the furious blasting. The drums’ role is very complex, even the guitar work provides abrasion and seismic grooving sections all come together in coherence.
‘Gaze of the Adversary’ and the final track ‘Burial of the World’ leads to an obscured terminal that crafts dark rhythms to maintain a monstrous and vicious feeling, which is the only element that Crypts of Despair brings along from the previous studio album.
Given the complexity of the composition it’s clear to say that the band has established a new identity that slithered from the earlier works. ‘We Belong in the Grave’ finds its path between the abrasive riffing and sporadic brutality, all meshed up with the viciousness of its compositional drive.
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REVIEW SCORE
6.4 | ‘We Belong in the Grave’ will impress fans of modern technical death metal and the misanthropic vocals that cement an unstoppable juggernaut in the band’s career. |
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