Dark, atmospheric and innovative. These are three among many adjectives that truly describe Cryptosis’ upcoming album, Celestial Death (2025).
The Dutch trio exceeded their boundaries and decided to push forward from their debut album to something different and unique. We had the chance to speak with Frank Te Riet, to learn how soundwise speaking Cryptosis evolved into nowadays and where they will be touring around 2025.
Celestial Death (2025) will be launched early March with different limited editions, available streaming platforms and encompasses the epitome of the band in modern times.
M.I. - It’s been 4 years since Bionic Swarm (2021) was released. What has the band been doing in the meantime?
During the pandemic it was a little bit challenging. When we signed the contract with Century Media Records, we thought the pandemic was going to end soon, and we thought to play safe and release Bionic Swarm one year from now.
That didn’t work. We had to postpone all the plans and all the work, and when we were back on tour, the album was already 2 years old. There was some sort of setback, because we lost a bit of momentum. We toured Europe for six weeks; we went to Lisbon which was really amazing. Miami was also great too. After that, we started to pick up songwriting and got in touch with Steffen Kummerer, from Obscura, and he really enjoys Cryptosis, wanted to bring us on tour with Cynic.
We already had quite a lot of material that he had written before. It’s about time to release an EP with the new songs. This gave us an opportunity to check out what we were recording, seeing if we were in the right direction. Basically, when we came back from the tour, in March 2024, we went immediately to the studio. We recorded until August, and after summer we started promoting the album.
M.I. - It’s not mystery that Cryptosis has its roots and influences in old school thrash metal, such as Sodom, Slayer and Destruction. Soundwise speaking, currently, how would you categorize the band?
Not so much thrash metal, a lot more cinematic, dark and atmospheric. There’s a lot of technical on the guitar and drums, which is not so much in the past.
If you enjoy listening to bands such as Emperor or Dissection, everything could be found in our songs.
M.I. - What is the key to make Cryptosis work as a killer trio?
I think the main ingredient is that we are a bit of outsiders! In the metal scene, we have different songs, but our secret is that we enjoy listening to different things.
When we come together, everyone puts their fingerprint on the songs, on a general pattern. If you take out one of the three of us, the band will sound completely different, and I think that is something unique that we have. That’s what defines us.
M.I. - Let’s talk about the upcoming album Celestial Death (2025). It’s not definitely the traditional sound and atmosphere that the fans were expecting. Can you tell us the ideas and goals for creating this new record?On Bionic Swarm we went all over the top with the speed, technique and showoff. We played so many concerts, and at same point it started to be a little bit boring.
We started questioning ourselves about how we could challenge ourselves in a different way. We have hung out so much together in the past two years, so we had the chance to discuss what we could do.
As time went by, we went to the studio and applied what we covered. With Bionic Swarm we learned everything, especially the atmospheric part that was always put in the background. For this album, we wanted to bring it back, give room for these instruments to breathe, meaning the guitar has to be held back. That’s the biggest key, also the way of songwriting is different from before. We considered how a song should fit in a certain atmosphere, how to achieve that sound and so on. It’s a big learning curve for us, and we exceeded ourselves.
In my case, I tend to listen to a lot of music like Massive Attack, Aphex Twin, etc. which are bands the other guys don’t like that much. From time to time, you get more open-minded, you incorporate different weird songs into your band and adapt to a new album.
M.I. - The video “Reign of Infinite”, recorded by F53 Films, portrays a dystopian and Orwellian like scenario. Who came up with this concept and where it was recorded?
It was my idea. The songs talk about the rise of a new god. Something that did not exist int the past which is something new. We talked with this film company who made many videos in the past.
I really wanted to push forward this video, especially because of F53 Films, and we recorded it in our neighborhood. We have some local friends and fans, and we asked them to participate in the video. We needed specific shots and movement in the video, which ended up pretty well.
M.I. - Can we state it’s a very personal album, dealing with social issues such as loss, emotional struggle, but also being part of the flock as a collective as we can hear in “Faceless Matter” and “The Silent Call”?
I definitely agree. It is somewhat our new identity and fits the world nowadays. I see the new generation that doesn’t care nor think about this, they just assume that’s the way how things are, especially in “Faceless Matter”.
M.I. - It seems you are vinyl lovers. Aside from the deep blood red limited edition, can we expect other ones or different formats?
CD, limited packs such as the red ones you mentioned and black too. That’s it for now, we want to see how’s the market’s going to behave in terms of purchasing these editions. Perhaps, in the future, we’ll do a repress or a splattered edition.
Also, the album will be available, of course, on different streaming platforms.
M.I. - We want to see you in Portugal! Any future plans for a live show this year?
Actually, we are working on some stuff in Portugal and Spain, during the fall. We have a Spanish booking agency which got us touring there, but other than that we’re going on tour in Europe with Onslaught and during summer will be in Latin America. Scandinavia is also on our radar, so it’s going to be a very busy year.
For Portuguese version, click here
Listen to Cryptosis, on Spotify
Questions by André Neves
