Indian band Kryptos are really no stranger to these pages, this is their latest offering and man does it work out really well!
Their art of powerful heavy metal, bounded with a true magical sense of melody, well, this is catchy, memorable and still heavy to make them stand out. With the rougher vocal tone, this really balances and contrasts perfectly. The whole album sounds punchy and vibrant; there is a clear element of having fun in what they are doing. You may find this rather similar to my reviews of their last two on these web pages, well I can’t lie that I have similar feelings. The difference on ‘Afterburner’ is that they have really mastered a natural feel for their music.
‘Red Dawn’ has some great guitar work, which is smooth and melodic for the solo part. ‘On the Run’ and ‘Mach Speed Running’ are sing-a-long greats. These invite you to adopt “the pose” and head bang in unison to the twists and turns of these remarkably flowing couples of tracks. I have felt in retrospect that there is a touch of similarity between each song on ‘Afterburner’, but hey, it still remains entertaining. The artwork has gone a touch cartoon character; I liked the metal representation of the last release more. That said, it’s non-too shabby.
Whether you follow ‘The Crimson Queen’ of rejoice in the ‘Cold Blood’, afterburner is yet another slab of uplifting and entertaining metal from India. Along with Against Nature, there’s some real talent. Kryptos were however the first I might add!
(8/10 Paul Maddison)
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