Extreme Metal, what does it mean? Well to me it generally means undefined, and often times dull. I’m so entrenched in genre policing that unless I can pinpoint something I generally find it annoying. Basically, even if it’s Technical Folk Blackened Death Thrash then that’s fine, but I need to see those influences. Plus, it makes for a really tough review if I can’t draw off of something, so what happens when you get a little bit of influence but mostly just plain old Extreme Metal? Well, let’s ask Crypts Of Despair.

The band are a Lithuanian quartet, billed as Death Metal but honestly to pencil them into that category seems a little silly (as you will read later). Having formed in 2009 the band didn’t actually release an album until 2017’s The Stench Of The Earth. The album generally received some good praise and as such the band are now with Transcending Obscurity Records. Now comes the time for the bands second full length, All Light Swallowed, how does it match up?

I love the cymbal opening to this album in Being – Erased, it’s like a not so false beginning of a breakdown. Then no messing about, straight into frantic guitars and pummelling drums, there is a kind of Black Metal edge to the sound that I really appreciate. Then in come those ultra-guttural new old school vocals (if you listen to a lot of modern Death Metal you know what I mean by that). There is some variation in the vocals too, sometimes rasps punch through, again giving us more Black Metal raw energy. This level of brutality it kept up through Anguished Exhale, Choked By The Void and frankly throughout. It’s strong but not particularly hook laden, nothing really jumps out at me, just well-rounded Extreme Metal.

Honestly though as we go into the second half of the album I’m getting a little bored. It’s the kind of music that you hear and go ‘wow, incredible’ but when you sit through an entire album you begin to grow weary. I do admire the lack of pointless intros and interludes but for the first time ever I’m actually questioning if that is exactly what this album is missing. In fact, The Great End could not be a more aptly named song, for I wish it was the end, alas it’s not yet to be. It’s not that the music is bad as much as it is one dimensional, the term pedestrian springs to mind when speaking of this band.

All Light Swallowed is the definition of background music in the dull sense. I’m a defender of the term normally but this time around I’m using it as it is generally meant. This is music that pours out of a tent at a festival that you walk past on your way to watch a better band. I’m not saying this doesn’t have a place though, I’m sure it’ll take someone’s fancy but for me it isn’t really rooted enough in Death Metal, Black Metal or any other subgenre. Literally this is just Extreme Metal with no frills, and quite frankly that makes me yawn.

(5/10 George Caley)

https://www.facebook.com/cryptsofdespair

https://cryptsofdespairdeath.bandcamp.com/album/all-light-swallowed-death-metal