‘Cryptopsy made icons of themselves with None So Vile, and you’d be hard-pressed to dig up a brutal or technical death metal album that doesn’t owe it some kind of debt.‘
-Iain Ferguson
Release date: July 3, 1996 | Wrong Again | Facebook | Instagram
What the frick is up, y’all? David subbing in for ASIR today and it’s a brutal one. Often the world ‘brutal’ is way overused in a meme-like fashion when it comes to the description of and distilling the passion behind liking death metal and its cousins. For Cryptopsy though, it’s as literal as it can get. As a genre tag, a lot of it can be traced back to None So Vile with technicality. You hear so much of its DNA in modern tech death. Plus, Metal Archives says they’re brutal – the ultimate authority on the situation… right? Enjoy!
Iain Ferguson
Yes indeed, I do think you do that rather well!
Most death metal fans probably don’t need any sort of preamble when it comes to technical/brutal death metal icons Cryptopsy, but, well, here it goes. Hot on the heels of their 1994 debut Blasphemy Made Flesh, the mad Canucks found themselves short a guitarist and a bassist. In the spirit of keeping their stick on the ice, Eric Langlois was brought in on bass, Jon Levasseur took over all guitars, and together with Flo Mounier and Lord Worm, they got to work doubling down on what made their debut great. In 1996, the fruits of their labor arrived with None So Vile. And good god did they ever succeed.
None So Vile, to this day, remains one of the most beloved albums in all of death metal, and for damn good reason. Leaning harder on technicality and brutality, alongside a distinct psychotic flair, None So Vile remains some of the best damned 32 minutes of death metal anyone has ever composed. It’s absolutely dense with chainsaw tremolo riffs, neck-breaking grooves and breakdowns, thunderous drums and bass, and some of the most unhinged vocals you could ever ask for.
After a quick sample from The Exorcist III, all hell breaks loose. A piercing shriek, an avalanche of drums and guitars, and Cryptopsy is off and running. “Crown of Horns” takes the bold step of inaugurating None So Vile with some of its most demented music, helmed by the rabid dog snarls of Lord Worm. I daresay that at first listen, many years ago, the vocals were what blew me away most about None So Vile. Lord Worm’s performance is absolutely deranged in a way seldom matched even to this day (besides maybe Sylvain Houde’s slathering over Kataklysm‘s Temple of Knowledge). In contrast to the oddly elegant (if insane) poesy of his lyricism, Lord Worm delivers his vocals like a legion of demons are all trying to voice their thoughts through him at once, bypassing coherence for sheer fervor. As the old joke goes, good luck following along with that lyrics booklet.
But vocals alone do not a death metal classic make, and the bloodied, frenetic frenzy of instrumental work of the band is every bit as malevolently wild as their frontman. The scorching leads that Levasseur lays down for “Crown of Horns” is a mere appetizer, before “Slit Your Guts” announces the main course. The tremolo leads are absolutely molten throughout, and when the band slows down into groovier breakdown riffs, it’s practically a requirement that listeners convulse along with it.
Speaking of breakdowns, I’ll be plain here: “Graves of the Fathers” is most likely my favorite death metal song anybody has ever written. At the very least, per the metrics of [streaming service redacted], it’s one of the songs I’ve listened to more than anything in any genre. The start-stop drum work of Mounier kicks off the grooves immaculately, and the choppy rhythmic style of the song is postively addictive. That stomping, pinch-harmonic punctuated groove that follows is irresistable, that damned breakdown is sheer perfection, dropping with a fun yet crushing weight that a thousand deathcore and brutal death metal bands have been trying to chase for decades. To say nothing of that menacing staccato riff that carries the song towards its conclusion…
I could wax poetic about most of these songs, but suffice to say, all of them are an absolute blast. “Dead and Dripping” is positively soaked into gory riff work, while “Benedictine Convulsions” bears the honor of being my runner-up favorite song on the album for that wild, bouncy funk influences that shine forth. It may not mark his most complex playing on the album, but the bass pops laid down by Eric Langois are definitely the moments on None So Vile where he cuts through best. Well, that or the slithering bassline that animates “Phobophile” after its haunting piano intro. That song in particular marks a great foreshadowing of the classical subtext that would soon come to dominate technical death metal. Add in the splattery delights of “Lichmistress” and “Orgiastic Disembowelment”, capped off by a sly Army of Darkness sample, and you have yourself a nigh perfect death metal album wall to wall.
Look, obviously I’m biased here. Yeah, None So Vile is my favorite death metal album. It marked a point where everything I like about Cryptopsy fired off exactly right. And looking back from the other side of more than two decades in a post-Necrophagist world, it stands as a refreshing alternate take on the technical death metal paradigm. In contrast to the clinical precision and effortless showmanship of most modern tech death, None So Vile sounds absolutely raw and bizarrely atmospheric, while also not leaning into the sheer dissonance their countrymen Gorguts unleashed with Obscura. Moreover, as I’ve discussed with many a friend who treasures the album, None So Vile feels like Cryptopsy are just barely hanging onto the fringes of their abilities here. The music is played to perfection, but there’s a frenetic energy to it that I always liken to a rickety old roller coaster running way too fast. It’s hanging in there, and it is thoroughly exhilarating, but it feels like the bolts and tracks are going to fly apart at any given moment and the whole thing is going to derail with fatal results. Yet, it never does. It just keeps careening forward with reckless abandon. That element, more than anything else, is why I’ve revisited None So Vile more times than I can count.
Cryptopsy made icons of themselves with None So Vile, and you’d be hard-pressed to dig up a brutal or technical death metal album that doesn’t owe it some kind of debt. Their career since has been a little more uneven, of course. Whisper Supremacy was dope, and Mike DiSalvo did a great job shifting the vocal style away from his predecessor’s madness. It’s just a shame he had to record the more splattery and less convincing And Then You’ll Beg through a flu. Lord Worm’s presence on the more experimental Once Was Not was a delight, but current vocalist Matt McGachy’s debut The Unspoken King… well, it fell a bit flat with the fans, we’ll say. But since then, they’ve been on a killer run of great albums, and they keep chugging along admirably to this day, still being a force of nature live (shout out to that Blasphemy Made Flesh set I witnessed at Maryland Deathfest).
What can I say? I just love this album. None So Vile is endlessly replayable and an absolute blast every single time, and likely will be for another thirty years at least. Obviously it’s not going to be for everyone (my poor wife, who is not a death metal fan, has recently had to wrestle hard with the knowledge that one of my favorite death metal vocalists goes by the title Lord Worm), but if you’re a dedicated fan of death metal… well, you’ve already heard the album, haven’t you? None So Vile stands as the shining crown (of horns?) atop Cryptopsy‘s head, and I can’t think of too many metalheads I know who would disagree (apart from my fellow contributor Eeli). If you haven’t heard it yet, though, go on, do that now.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to run home and cry to mama.
Eeli Helin
Cryptopsy’s importance to the tech death world as a whole simply can’t be dismissed. The Canadians set fire to the underground right off the bat, with a cornerstone of the genre right around the corner. None So Vile is one of the most applauded and hallowed albums to ever come out of that particular scene, and cemented Cryptopsy’s legacy as one of the most significant bands out there, in doing what they do. Their audience got seemingly divided later on due to the member bingo and stylistic experimentation, but nothing obviously changes what was done back then, and to what end.
My relationship with the band’s output is a rather deep one, as I came across them around the time when I was just seriously getting into this side of music, so during my late teens. While their self-titled is closest to my heart, and not in the least due to one of my favourite vocal deliveries ever, I did learn very quickly the band’s undergone a multitude of shifts during their career, out of which the vocalist changes have probably been the most drastic ones.
Lord Worm fronted the unit on a few occasions, with None So Vile equally cementing his position as one of the most formidable front persons in existence. While Flo (Mounier, drummer) also exercised his throat muscles on some key moments throughout the album and the rest of their discography, it goes without saying that Mr. Worm is on the front and center here, being surrounded by the most mind-bending instrumentation to ever caress your ears.
The technical insanity on None So Vile is on a sublime level, emphasized by the old school organic production, where it truly feels like each and every musician is operating on their maximum level at all times. This in turn creates a palpable feeling of danger throughout, as it’s audible that everything could break down any second now, yet nothing ever does. Cryptopsy has always revelled in pushing their extremes as far as humanly possible, and it alone deserves wide recognition.
While I personally favour the modern times and think that Cryptopsy has hit a continuous stride on their peak over the past fifteen years with the current line-up and what they do, credit certainly should go where credit is due, and I can attest to None So Vile’s importance, even if I don’t frequent at its dismal grip as often as I probably should. Cryptopsy are an amazing fucking band and I love them, and so should everyone else. So if you’re stumbling upon this article by a random chance, take this as a push to the right direction you should be headed to.
