From Long Island, New York, hails a four-piece band named Cryptodira. Their style includes many elements from different genres and as such could best be described simply as progressive metal. The band is a young one, having been created in 2011, they've already managed to put out two EPs with a professional sound. In January 2013 they released their second EP, "Recursions", which has an astonishingly good production for a self-released EP.
Recursions greets you with a pounding piece of progressive death metal, machinegun drumming, roaring hardcore-inspired vocals and heavy riffing and melodic melodies over the djenty rhythm-section all included. Continuing in a more melodic style "Either Fly or Fall Faster" comes on in continuation of "The Birth of a King", and while this is a good track in itself the entire last minute feels completely out of place and stupid. The bass and drums are keeping some weird rhythm while someone shouts incredibly inane lyrics with a voice that can be described as little else but annoying.
The rest of the EP continues with 3 additional tracks of varying melodic disposition, but the rest of the material is generally more centered around melody rather than heavy rhythms.
They strike me as a band that want to be a few things too many. There's some death in there, some djent, metalcore and progressive melodies. They do some of these elements alright, but ultimately the Recursions EP seems a little too schizophrenic. There are times where a part of a track will stand out, but the merrit of these parts is overshadowed by the weird way the parts are pieced together. It's a shame, because the entire EP is produced really well and sounds exactly like it should, but in regards to the songwriting itself there's still a way to go. Not a long way, but a way nonetheless. I'm missing some uniformity, thereby not saying all the songs should be the same, but there aren't as such any recurring "Cryptodira elements" to keep it all together. 6/10 guitars.
Tracklist:
1. The Birth of a King
2. Either Fly or Fall Faster
3. On Sleepwalking
4. Allies to Ignorance
5. The Affirmation
CRYPTODIRA on Facebook
Buy Recursions for pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp
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