Echoes of the Soul

Crypta use social media the right way. Following the release of their debut album, Echoes of the Soul, they posted a series of videos showcasing members playing through songs (and are doing the same for the recently released sophomore album, Shades of Sorrow). No music video will ever be as good as a video of the band’s drummer playing the same song. They upload videos of the guitarists and bassist too, and yeah, fine, but drumming is inherently more interesting to watch, and Crypta specifically have one of the scene’s most exciting drummers, Luana Dametto.

Dametto turned heads on Downfall of Mankind, the one Nervosa album she appeared on before her and founding member Fernanda Lira were booted from the band (or left or whatever), but Crypta, their next project, was the perfect stage to show off her drumming prowess. Instead of flirting with death metal like Nervosa, Crypta is full-on fucking death metal. That means drumwork that is more dynamic, more demanding. Fills dominate her writing; just listen to the gloriously busy latter half of “Shadow Within”. She reins in when necessary, like the at times minimalist lines of “Under the Black Wings” that add some textural variety focusing on the steady rattle of cymbals. Blastbeats feature heavily, though not as a crutch. They are but one tool in her belt, and speed is not valued to the detriment of all else. There’s power in her playing. Check out the floor tom hits at the start of “Blood Stained Heritage”.

Echoes of the Soul is steeped in the early days of DM, though without the slavish nostalgia that would justify adding OS to their genre. Death is the most obvious parallel, one acknowledged by the band themselves; they end lives sets with the riff from “The Philosopher”. Fernanda Lira’s vocals have a similar shrillness to Chuck Schuldiner’s especially on the later Death albums, though she alternates her highs with a more trad growl. While not replicating Death’s sound down to the molecule like Gruesome, Crypta owe a lot to the DM pioneers. They’ve got the thrashiness of Leprosy, and the technicality of their later albums without the progressive tendencies. Thrash is part of their sound not in a Master or Strappado way, but in the way it was once a given that death metal was derivative of thrash. Crypta prove so much is possible within genre limits. There’s the assault of “Starvation”, the sinister march of “Death Arcana”, the triumph of “From the Ashes”.

When they bring in outside elements, it always hits. The amphetamine-fast solo of “Blood Stained Heritage” breaks up the most pummeling song, and would’ve blown the hairspray-encased minds of 80s rockers. Black metal is thrown around a lot when people talk about Crypta proving the total buzzwordification of the term, but “Dark Night of the Soul” is one time it’s appropriate, with its tremolo picking and pervading darkness. They work Egyptian chords in there too. The clean production is the most modern element of the album, but it’s not like all those classic Morrisound albums were raw and filthy. Only the bass mixing warrants complaint. It’s there. You can find it, and on some tracks (e.g. “Blood Stained Heritage”) it’s out in the open, but no reason it shouldn’t have been that prominent throughout.

Even the cover art recalls the glory years. It’s more Dan Seagrave than Wes Benscoter despite being painted by the latter. Crypta really showed up for this one. Normally I prefer uglier, dingier, stupider metal than this, but Echoes of the Soul has earned a permanent place in my rotation.

As Crypta is getting closer and closer to the release of their sophomore effort (for those unaware, "Shades of Sorrow" arrives on August 4), I thought maybe it was a good time to revisit their first stone cast into the renewal of the modern spectre of death metal. And as I anxiously await for the arrival of their second studio offer, I realize that Crypta used the paragons and circumstances of a difficult time to their favor, creating an album that stood with us through the final stages of the pandemic and that calls us to arms for what really matters.

Going into details, I'd say "Echoes of the Soul" is a fine extreme blend that contains the mix of death and thrash metal that was to be expected from an album that is still pretty influenced by Fernanda and Luana's past work in Nervosa. But what sets the album apart from the rest is that it also presents a touch of horror ("The Awakening" and the closure of "From The Ashes" are fine examples of that) and also a fine hint of lyrical philosophy ("Dark Night of the Soul"). The myth of the Phoenix explored in "From The Ashes" takes the philosophical aspect to new heights as well, presenting a general perspective of life as something that is built upon cycles: Some need to be closed for others to open and present new oportunities. But that doesn't mean we can't reemerge from the mess we've made, on the contrary: It only serves to make us more powerful. Besides, this album also presents Fernanda in her most authentic self from a lyrical standpoint, with "Starvation" depicting the social plague that was the result of the effects of the pandemic being mishandled, but at the same time expressing the anger and revolt that came with its consequences. Everything in that song screams fury, combined with a desire to change things up: From Fernanda's fierce - yet demonic - vocals to the unstoppable blast that was Luana Dametto's drum assault, everything in "Starvation" emanates the fury of a relatable topic in society, that does not - or should not - concern only those who experience it first hand.

From the songwriting standpoint, the album is absolutely flawless, but I think what stands out the most is Sonia Anubis' songwriting ability. Considering that, in recent years, Sonia drove herself away from her extreme metal roots in favor of a more accessible, almost "glamy" approach to the genre (check her band Cobra Spell if you haven't already), she definitely shows she hasn't lost a step, with the solos in "Kali", "Bloodstained Heritage" and "From The Ashes" being among her best lead guitar works and showing incredibly maturity and technique for a musician in her early 20's. Production wise, it is still good, but I fear it is not as good as the production in "Shades of Sorrow" will probably be. Somehow the mixing, mastering... all those aspects feel more "modern" in this record, and it lacks a bit of the punch a death metal record should have in that aspect.

All in all, "Echoes of the Soul" presents us the need for reinvention, the urge to start a new cycle when the one we're a part of doesn't fit us anymore. It presents a hardening of Fernanda and Luana's sound (their work in Nervosa had a bigger emphasis on thrash) without losing sight of what really matters. Metal, philosophy, horror, a little bit of personal experience - this album created the perfect combo that allowed it to fulfill its primordial goal: Symbolize the arrival of a new band with an absolute blast, leaving the refinement of the sound to future records. "Echoes of the Soul" started the work that "Shades of Sorrow" will finish. And every album after that will just be better and better, because the expectations will be just as higher.

This is Sonia Anubis's former band now, she's ventured onto Cobra Spell. And what a solid old school death metal sound to this International act featuring Brazilian/Dutch natives. All woman band, these members but out some furious and intense death metal. I've not liked the album initially because of the vocals, but it kind of grew on me. The leads are fantastic too! Not too many points I'd take off due to mediocrity, these women are anything but that! The rhythms are fast and furious. There isn't a song on here that doesn't disappoint. The melodies are good and it's definitely a worthwhile release.

It's actually taken about 5-6 spins to come up with an intelligible content here because there's so many intricate parts to this LP. As I say, I wasn't a fan of the vocals, but it did kind of grow on me. They are unique and I guess I'm so used to standard death metal that I forget that this is a female band so they're going to have their own sound. Sonia kicking ass on lead plus the band writes some creative riffs. I'd have to say that this debut is admirable. I'm hoping that the departure of Sonia will embrace some new talent now on the next LP. They're touring (I believe) and I think that they'll pick up more good ideas to the person who fills Sonia's slot.

Production quality was good, solid and tight. It did the musicians' justice and there really wasn't any parts to this LP that are boring. The energy is all there and the leads were tight as well. I don't think that any of the music was unoriginal. I think it was creatively captivating. And just to know that they're active is positive. The rhythms were solid and the overall songwriting was admirable. However, I don't think that this is higher than a "B" rating. Again, it took a while to get into but as I see they were reaching for their own sound in the death metal arena and did so in achieving that. Much kudos for that!

I purchased this a while ago even though they're on Spotify and Bandcamp. I always say support the band and buy the physical copy but that's up to you. If you want to hear some fresh talent in the arena, Crypta is where it's at! They have so much to offer and have enormous energy! I applaud them for giving their own sound as an International death metal band. Key into the music, not so much of the lyrics as most death metal bands don't sing about very meaningful topics. If you're able to overcome this dilemma, you will most likely be totally into this band. Check 'em out!

At the end of April 2020, Brazilian trio Nervosa had a line-up shakeup. Well, in fact it was a real earthquake. Caused by the impact of a comet. Prika Amaral said goodbye to vocalist/bassist Fernanda Lira and drummer Luana Dametto, who soon formed their own band. They laid the bodies of Taina Bergamaschi and Sonia Nusselder (ex-Burning Witches) to the Crypt, and grow "Echoes of the Soul" on their rotting corpses. Is it plain weed or beautiful rose?

During the atmospheric intro we descend into the musty-smelling underground to enjoy the brutal thrash/death metal with some black metal overtones among the dirt and vermin. Changes of pace, percussion blasts, back-slapping riffs, Lira's furious vocals (although I must admit that I'm not a big fan of her voice) - if You know and like Nervosa, you'll feel right at home here. Sometimes there will be a real slaughterhouse (like in the fragments of "Dark Night of the Soul" or "Blood Stained Heritage"), but there will be also nice, melodic, catchy guitar parts. However, not all of them are on the same level: in "Death Arcana" or "Possessed" girls can enchant us with great solos, while in "Under the Black Wings" they aim for boring, "slayer-ish" noise.

Musically, there is still room for improvement, but at the end of the day it all has arms and legs - separated from its owner, but still. Unfortunately, it's worse when it comes to the sound of the material itself. Here we have a quartet consisting of two guitarists, but their parts... are quite clearly tucked away in the back. Fernanda screams in the front (and rattles the bass), Luana's set can also be heard without any complaints, but Taina and Sonia, instead of punching us in the face, play somewhere in the background. And because of that, Crypta's music often lacks the "punch". Whether it was the decision of Arthur Rizek responsible for the mix or maybe the founders themselves didn't want to give up the field - I don't know. I do know, however, that this definitely needs to be improved on the next album!

Nervosa's fans can breathe a sigh of relief: Prika Amaral's "Perpetual Chaos" maintained the level of its predecessors and the debut album of her former bandmates is no less interesting. Admittedly, the latter still seems a bit undercooked, but it's nothing that can't be improved in the future. So we enjoy the nice cover by Wes Besconter, we listen to nice compositions and we hope that on the album number two the guitarists will blow our speakers.

(Originally written for www.metalside.pl)

I was definitely a fan of Nervosa for many years and quite enjoyed their brand of Sodom/Destruction-ish thrash metal, so when news broke of a tear in the ranks of the band it was news that was a little disheartening. But with the news that both sides of the tear would carry on I was at least hopefully for the future. Having heard - and being somewhat disappointed - by the latest offering from Nervosa with something of a supergroup assembled around her, I was having a little bit of doubt of what would happen with Fernanda and Luana's new project, Crypta.

Lead-off tune "Starvation" puts those fears to bed right from the moment play is pressed. This is awesome, old-school death/thrash in the same ballpark as bands like Vader, Skeletal Remains, Massacre, and Sinister, and you immediately pick that up from the very first riff-heavy offering on this album. At times the riffs plod in that headbang-inducing way not unlike what dominates the first minute and a half of "Under the Black Wings" or "Death Arcana," but the band is still able to effortlessly transition back into the 1-2-1-2 blast beats and d-beat thrash patterns to get a mosh going. Guitarists Tainá and the ever-busy Sonia Anubis blaze all over this record with those riffs and tasty shred-licks a-plenty, with both bring decidedly different styles to the table. Bottom line, if you enjoy this style of death metal from back in the day, they are literally bringing everything you loved about that style very faithfully. Album-closer "From The Ashes" is probably the absolute best representation of all of this, with classic blasts, tremolo-picked riffage, gallops, and goddamn hooks that reel you in on these choruses!

The mixjob is also rather superb with style-appropriate, scooped-mid guitars and the right amount of air around it. It's not a sterile tone with zero reverb like you find on a lot of modern records...it has just the right amount of chilly cavern ambience blended in, creating a more than fitting backdrop for Fernanda's blackened shrieks. About the only real detriment about this record in my opinion is the mixing of the drums. These tones would be far better suited for slam death metal or some more progressive thrash, and on this record they tend to ring out in such a way that takes away from the overall sonic impact. I would have much preferred a meatier, fatter drum tone to match the gut-punch the rest of the record's tones bring, but that's the slightest of grievances compared to how thoroughly enjoyable this record is.

All around, this is a stunning debut that like Fernanda and Luana's previous band pays a ton of homage to those that came before, but not in a copying-for-the-sake-of-it kind of way. More like it holds those influences in high reverence and tries - and succeeds - to find it's own place in that style. Very well-done!

With the ongoing thrash metal revival still going strong and its uglier old school death metal cousin also making a respectable splash in the 2010s, it might seem inevitable that some individual contributors of one might see fit to cross the divide, particularly those on the more extreme fringes of the former. Following the lineup revamp of Brazil’s Nervosa, arguably the most extreme thrash outfit to come out of said nation while featuring an all female membership, this is exactly what came to pass with said band’s mad-raving front woman and bassist Fernanda Lira and her drummer compatriot Luana Dametto jumping ship to form a new, even darker union with former Burning Witches shredder Sonia Anubis and relative newcomer guitarist Taina Bergamaschi. The rugged, old school death metal powerhouse of a result that is Crypta is thus a new player on the stage, yet arguably also coming to the table with all the makings of a supergroup minus all of the downsides that go along with it.

At first glance, the raging fury of dissonant notes and bone-crushing riffs that is this outfit’s debut showing Echoes Of The Soul appears to be an amped up version of Nervosa’s extreme thrashing approach. However, the degree of sheer aggression surpasses the outermost fringes of Sodom’s Tapping The Vein and Demolition Hammer’s Epidemic Of Violence, landing in territory more comparable to the seminal offerings of Vader, intermingled with some obvious early Sepultura influences that were also to be found in Nervosa’s first few albums. To be clear, the riffing approach is of a more thrashing character, having more to do with Seven Churches and Leprosy than Butchered At Birth or Blessed Are The Sick. Arguably the biggest indicator of a purely death metal pedigree here is Lira’s far more guttural and intense vocal display, though the frequent employment use of blinding tremolo riffs and semi-frequent blast beats also play a key part in moving this away from a mid-80s extreme thrash sound a la Dark Angel or Slayer.

Barring a few moments of dreary atmospheric touches here and there, which also serve to solidify this album’s authenticity of style, the formula at play here is as straightforward of an auditory knife to the skull as one would hope for in this style. The uncompromising brutality sessions that are “Starvation”, “Bloodstained Heritage” and “From The Ashes” are made to order for those who want it fast and ferocious. A degree of technical nuance is brought into the equation at times that mirrors some of the strides made by Death on Spiritual Healing, primarily in the lead guitar department of the introductions of noted raging anthems as “Possessed”, “Shadow Within” and “Death Arcana”, while the wild shred fest that kicks off “Kali” following a pummeling drum intro has some pretty clear Hoffmann brothers touches. But probably the most intriguing outing is “Dark Night Of The Soul”, which almost sounds like a partial homage to Nile in the way it incorporates Egyptian musical ideas in both the atmospheric intro and outro as well as the metallic moments.

While the latest studio release is often the best one according to the artists involved in its creation, a sentiment generally echoed by their core audience, this isn’t necessarily better than what Lira and Dametto accomplished with Nervosa, though it is definitely different. In some ways it comes off as more varied in demeanor, which may well be a product of Anubis’ background in more mainline forms of metal, but in others it seems a tad bit more rooted in the same traditional structures that Victim Of Yourself and Downfall Of Mankind wore on their respective shirtsleeves. In the larger context of the contemporary old school death metal revivalist movement, it has a bit more of a modern bite to it when compared against the likes of Rude and Skeletal Remains, though it tends to follow the same formula in terms of songwriting. For those who want something a bit darker and more vicious than the likes of Arch Enemy, but still want it more structured and accessible than Incantation, this is a sure winner.

Originally written for Sonic Perspectives (www.sonicperspectives.com)