Release Day Roundup: 6/20/25

Top Pick

Cryptopsy – An Insatiable Violence (brutal tech-death)

The dominant narrative surrounding Cryptopsy is that their modern period, beginning with 2012's self-titled record, is generally seen as a return to form, following a severely rocky middle period. While I'll happily conceded that None So Vile (1996) is undoubtedly the band's best album and a defining album for death metal as a whole, even if 2005's perplexingly overlooked Once Was Not will always be my favourite. I'm also the dirty bastard who not only likes The Unspoken King (2008), but counts it among the best of the band's other albums, which otherwise also all align with the bands much-maligned and more experimental middle period (which I'm now learning are all tied together by the otherwise fairly inactive guitarist Alex Auburn). Yet, while I might have gotten a lot more out of these albums than most, this also means that that the several, widely lauded releases they've put out since then have fallen somewhat flat to me. They're undeniably good death metal albums/EPs, and I'll give the band extra props for maintaining a consistent line-up across this past decade, but they've always seemed like more of an imitation, rather than a recapturing of the band's classic early era.

This opinion is only further entrenched by the release of An Insatiable Violence, which is not only by far the best album the current incarnation of Cryptopsy have put out, but might just be one of the best records of their entire career as well. The album towers over its immediate predecessors on three fronts: its brutality, its memorability and its variation. Although it might seem a little bit uninspired on paper, listening to just a few seconds—and indeed any few seconds—will assure you that it's perfectly named. Cryptopsy are already on the more extreme end of the death metal spectrum, but this record is absolutely unrelenting in its aggression. I've never been dragged along the ground behind a speeding car before (and I hopefully never will!) but I imagine it feels how this album sounds. Their past few records have been plenty brutal, but this one also manages to make things more engaging by constantly shifting gears and also adding in a few unexpected elements including several, distinctive beatdowns, without ever delving into Unspoken King/deathcore territory, and even a few melodeath passages to keep you on your toes while it strings you up by the neck.

Vocalist Matt McGachy has also stepped his game up here significantly, delivering an absolutely unhinged and ruthless performance that sounds like George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher on a killing spree and is also his most refreshingly varied since (ahem) The Unspoken King, although without the clean singing. Indeed comparisons to Corpsegrinder-era Cannibal Corpse abound across the album, but rather than sounding derivative, they only entrench the opinion that I really don't need another album from that band—or if I do, it better be as good as this one! In a lot of ways, An Insatiable Violence also reminds me a lot of the last Suffocation album—both in the skeletal spikes of its cover design (provided by late, live Cryptopsy vocalist Martin Lacroix), but also in the masterful culmination of its compositions, which draws on brutal death metal experience as old of the genre itself to deliver a record that proves why they are once again—and arguably always have been—at its absolute pinnacle.

Malevolence – Where Only The Truth Is Spoken (sludgy metalcore)

While I'm out here taking on the classics... Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, sweating about that time I publicly stated that I probably prefer Malevolence's 2022 breakthrough album Malicious Intent to Killswitch Engage's paradigm-shifting metalcore classic Alive or Just Breathing (2002). Then I listen to it again, and I'm like, "Nah, this shit rips!" If it's not quite as good as some of the absolute metalcore masterpieces, then it's easily as good as most of them. By the same token, while it's actually highly anticipated follow-up doesn't quite reach the lofty heights of its predecessor, it still packs a hell of a punch.

As with each of Malevolence's previous releases, Where Only the Truth is Spoken leans ever further towards the Hatebreed end of the band's Crowbar-esque Kingdom of Sorrow continuum. While this perhaps makes their music less distinct, it's also ultimately for the best. For, while it's the Kirk Windstein croon of stocky rhythm guitarist Konan Hall that sets them apart, it's lead guitarist Josh Baines who is arguably Malevolence's most valuable asset—bringing a metallic dexterity derived from the likes of Lamb of God (whose Randy Blythe shows up on "In Spite") and ear for melody that has its sights firmly set on, and may one day rival, Parkway Drive's Jeff Ling.

I might just be overly sensitive, but I must admit to a certain amount of discomfort and reluctance to chant along with a bunch of combative Anglo-Saxons about how "everybody's always looking for a handout" on lead single "Trenches", especially in this political climate—even if it's only about what Emmure would call The Respect Issue, rather than wealth distribution. On the other hand, I solidly side with Malevolence in the conviction that more bands should film sick drone-shot videos of them ripping sweet solos atop mountainous roadside hills, even as something of an environmentalist. Pick your battles I guess...