By: Jesse Edwards
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 14/02/2020
Label: Seeing Red Records
“Cryptomass” CD//DD
track listing:
1). Cryptomass
2). The Silence of Agony
3). Creatures from the Vault
4). Funeral
Circle
5). Burial at Night
6). The Failure of Creation
7). Mass in the Catacomb
8). Claws of Evil
9). Reaper Looks in Your Eyes
The Review:
SuuM
hail from
Rome , Italy
As an ardent
fan of the genre, I’ve been on the look-out for bands to fill the cavernous
void left by my beloved Reverend Bizarre,
who committed themselves to the earth back in 2007. 13 years on, and I was
convinced that those darn Finn’s had taken the entire genre down with them. (So
long, suckers, indeed!)
So when “Cryptomass” came up for review,
my interest was immediately piqued with the trad-doom categorisation. Yes, the
cover art looks a bit crude, but luckily, I was obliged to listen to the album,
and to my absolute delight—I found traditional doom
metal of the highest order!
Much of the
band’s sound harks back to the Scandinavian revival of the early 2000’s, with
bands like Reverend Bizarre, Spiritus Mortis, and Griftegard clearly being heavily influential,
but SuuM are able to inject enough of
their own ideas to prevent things from becoming clichéd. The album stays firmly
rooted in the traditional doom style, yet there’s enough variety within the
songs to keep things interesting throughout this fine selection of graveyard
soirees. I thought the song writing on “Cryptomass”
was exceedingly well done, with the band conjuring ominous atmospheres and
melancholic imagery, whilst drawing a nice balance between the funeral dirge
and a foot-tapping rhythm.
The vocals
were a particular high point for me: harrowingly operatic, whilst at times wild
and unhinged; lead vocalist, Mark Wolf, is certainly fundamental in giving this
band its unique sound. The guitar tone is heavy, but maintains a certain
clarity to allow for the dynamics of guitarist Painkiller’s playing to be clearly
heard amongst the cacophony. The bass is prominent in the mix, with just enough
distortion to make for a fabulously heavy sound, and the drum work harnesses
the traditional ‘less-is-more’ approach before a thorough reverb-soaking makes
for the kind of echo you would only find in the most sinister of Ceremonial
Halls.
One of the
album’s highlights was certainly the title track ‘Cryptomass’, which takes the listener for an 8-minute retrospective
through the catacombs of doom metal past. Others include ‘Claws of Evil’, with its fabulous Sabbathian styled riffs; ‘Mass in the Catacomb’ then serves as a
nod to Black
Sabbath’s ‘Orchid’; and ‘Creatures of the Vault’, which boasts a
gloriously triumphant outro as it soars high into the night.
Make no
mistake! “Cryptomass” is one
of the finest displays of traditional doom metal for many years, and I would
certainly place SuuM amongst the best
doom bands to have emerged in recent times.
While some say doom metal may be dead… something still stirs in the
heart of the Mediterranean .
“Cryptomass” is available HERE
