VISITATIONS FROM ENCELADUS

"Visitations From Enceladus" is the debut full-length studio album by UK, Leeds based progressive death/thrash metal act Cryptic Shift. The album was released through Blood Harvest Records in May 2020. Cryptic Shift formed in 2012 (originally as Crÿptic Shift) and have released a string of minor releases (demos, singles, and the 2016 "Beyond the Celestial Realms" EP) before recording and releasing "Visitations From Enceladus".

Stylistically the material on the 4 track, 46:35 minutes long album is sci-fi themed technical/progressive death/thrash metal. Cryptic Shift play a rather chaotic, structurally complex, and often dissonant extreme metal style with elements from both thrash metal, death metal, and progressive metal in the more extreme end of the spectrum. It´s highly progressive music and a bit inaccessible too. The listener is immediately pummeled by the 25:57 minutes long album opener "Moonbelt Immolator", which is an incredibly complex track featuring many different sections and atmospheres. The vocals are predominantly raw shouting thrash styled vocals or growling death metal vocals, but the album also features other types of vocals like spoken/talking sections and robotic effect vocal sections. Because of the use of dissonant chords Voivod are an obvious influence, but Cryptic Shift play a much more technical and challenging music style than the Canadians ever did.

"Visitations From Enceladus" features a raw, powerful, and well sounding production job, which suits the material perfectly. I especially enjoy the sharpness of the snare drum, but also how clear every guitar note is heard in the mix. I´m a bit more in doubt how much I enjoy the actual music though. To my ears the material are almost too inaccessible and the tracks lack catchy moments and memorable riffs. The vocals are also a bit too low in the mix and while they get the job done, they don´t really shine or make much of an impression.

The shorter tracks on the album are a bit easier to follow than "Moonbelt Immolator", and my initial impression of the album being a structurally chaotic mess is a bit lessened when listening to a track like "(Petrified In The) Hypogean Gaol". A little less focus on playing a million notes and incorporating hundreds of different riffs and rhythms on every track and a little more focus on memorability could have done the trick, but as a debut release there is still lots of promise here. When Cryptic Shift learn to trim the fat and produce more catchy moments there may be greatness ahead. Sometimes less is more. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)