Album review : KRYPTOS – Decimator
AFM Records [Release date : 05.07.24]
On their magnificent seventh album now, Indian heavy metal band, Kryptos still have their eyes on the prize. It’s always tantalisingly out of reach for most bands. Few ever get their hands on it.
Judging by Decimator, for Kryptos it’s close but no cigar.
The band’s old school approach to their music, riding NWOBHM’s fast vanishing vapour trail, neatly contradicts the space odyssey / future shock imagery of their cover art and song titles.
As an MO it works well, but it doesn’t work consistently.
‘Sirens Of Steel’ and ‘Spectre’s Gaze’ are smash’n’grab variants of the NWOBHM formula. The band’s streamlined axework and armour plated rhythm section are a little underpowered, but along with ‘Decimator’, the title track, Nolan Lewis’s vocal intensity just about carries them through.
Standouts, ‘Turn Up The Heat’ and ‘Electrify’ are a step up from those first few tracks. These are more good old fashioned hard rock than metal. Rock songs with a metal vocalist. An interesting combination. It works well, giving us the best of both worlds.
They are surpassed only by ‘In The Shadows’, a more nuanced metal song, with the twin guitars taking a light and shade approach, outshining the band’s unvarying approach to their vocal stylings.
In the middle of all this hard rock and heavy metal, ‘Solaris’ is a beacon of light, a short, sweet slice of acoustic guitar melody. Out of place, out of time, perhaps, but welcome nevertheless. ***
Review by Brian McGowan
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