Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Krypts > Unending Degradation > Reviews
Krypts - Unending Degradation

Beneath the Krypts - 70%

Hames_Jetfield, June 11th, 2023

In the first years of the 21st century, the Finnish lands were overwhelmed by an avalanche of trashy and too similar power metal - often also with a bitter, symphonic aftertaste. Fortunately, a few years after the influx of this trash, it did not completely abandon the memory of the local filthy underground with which it once - horror of horrors! - this scene was the most associated. At least some cult names were reactivated (Convulse, Demilich, Abhorrence, etc.), and there were also younger ones ones faithfully cultivating that style in similar regions. One of such successful band is Krypts - created in 2008 quite fresh (sic!) death/doom metal band. After the release of a promising demo and ep, in 2013 they released their debut "Unending Degradation"; one of those albums that well emphasized that Finnish ugliness has not been forgotten.

Three Finns, i.e. Otso Ukkonen (drums), Ville Snicker (guitar) and Antti Kotiranta (bass/vocals), just decided to remind how to crush with the aesthetics of gloomy death/doom. "Unending Degradation" of course does not turn this trend upside down and is also not as massive and intense as its main, starting positions (about which more soon), although it can make you interested in its grave atmosphere and pull you into subsequent listenings. Krypts chose death/doom, which does not come away from slower, dystopian landscapes built on the basis of lazily doomy riffs, but also from the dynamics and heaviness known from Incantation. So there is no lack of brutality on the album shrouded in blasts, as well as an overwhelming heaviness or a musty atmosphere at every step. It's true that on "Unending..." there is not such a dose of madness as in the early recordings of John McEntee's band and Antti Kotiranta's bear-like growling smacks of monotony, although the compositions themselves make up for it well, in which you can find a lot of starting points and sensible references to old times of death metal. A good example of this are: "Blessed Entwinement" (strongly boosting the overall pace of the album), "Open The Crypt" (with a simple rhythm which would fit to the...Bolt Thrower!), "Day Of Reckoning" (here the same) or "Dormancy Of The Ancients" and "Inhale..." (beautifully muddy), because in them you can best hear a good sense of taste and a surprisingly high degree of differentiation. Similarly positive feelings are left by the production, on the one hand, really oldschool, on the other, legible and without demo-style tendencies.

Krypts' debut album is therefore quite a good example that death metal from Finland is not a thing of the past and has its promising successors. "Unending Degradation" very efficiently combines proven patterns, although it does not use them in an intrusive way. Everything is natural here and this everything was a great way to show that the group has the potential for even more.

Originally on A bit of subjectivism...in metal

Embracing Finnish Tradition - 93%

Mercyful Trouble, March 21st, 2021
Written based on this version: 2013, CD, Dark Descent Records

Out of Dark Descent Records' extensive past and present roster containing some of the most visceral and cryptic death metal bands in recent memory, it's hard to pick a favorite, especially after being spoiled rotten with bands like Hyperdontia and Sulphurous and their riffy, putrid sounds. However, Krypts was probably the first one I heard and I fell in love with the otherworldly atmosphere and subturranean crunch almost instantly. The demos as well as the full-length albums recaptured everything that made the Finnish death metal scene of the early 90's so special, despite being largely unknown at the time unless you were actually there or very deep into the underground tape trading scene of the day.

What a sentimental yet emotionally obscure unearthing the debut album Unending Degradation really is! "Open the Crypt" indeed, because it feels like that's what one would need to do in order to acquire a fetid gem such as this one, having been buried for centuries in the deepest crevice of the most unnerving slime caverns...

If you've heard even a bit of cult gems from the country of Finland like Funebre, Abhorrence, Rippikoulu, Unholy, Depravity, and Purtenance, it should be abundantly clear (or murky, rather) what you're getting into as soon as you take one glance at the oppressive cover art for Unending Degradation. The first four tracks alone would make up a flawless 1990-93 demo/EP tape alongside Cranial Torment, Silence of the Centuries, Vulgar Necrolatry, Wrath From the Unknown, Musta seremonia, and whatever else have you, but Krypts' first demo already did something similar, so we get a full album!

Holy fuck, for how "murky" this death metal is, the riffs are very distinguishable. "Open the Crypt" is one of the most notable modern death metal songs for this reason, as it's got this really intense mid-tempo groove to it as I recall. One could also point to the sludgy chugs and gallops in "Dormancy of the Ancients" for a sense of how the music here drives like a sturdy vehicle built low to the ground. That's important because a lot of death/doom or whatever that tries to be funereal with its atmosphere just isn't so, because it doesn't have that driving oppression, the riffs just kind of dirge in place with no purpose behind them. Sure, there's melodies but at that point it's just kind of ineffectual. Not so for Krypts! There's the right touch of melody, mid-tempo crushingness, (the bass tone is fucking gnarly too!) and overall careful selection of which notes to play regardless of what tempos or time signatures are at hand.

The drum fills too, they add so much more pacing to the music in much the same way Andy from Bolt Thrower would've done. "Dormancy of the Ancients" is the best example of this tendency executed at mid-tempo, but in moments like the beginning of "The Black Smoke" or the verse of "Day of Reckoning", that's where the drumming feels utterly relentless yet catchy. This segues into the next point which is the vocals. Guess how they sound. Deep. Deep, guttural death growls that carry what could be described as emotion, but is more accurately explained as "mood." A really sinister, tortured, and vaguely hateful tone to these death growls, and the darkly melodic, gut-busting music substantiates this feeling.

Lastly, not sure where to put this but "Beneath the Archaic" is the perfect closer to a damn near perfect doomy death metal album. Everything about it feels so culminative, the haunting melodies and drudgy feel especially. There's that kind of slowed-down, chunkified Bolt Thrower/Benediction charge to some parts of it coupled with tremolo attacks, but the distinct minor-scale progressions lend it a way more menacing feel, rather than Bolt Thrower's sheer badassery. Along with "Dormancy" this has to be the highlight of the album.

If you are looking for a cherry to top off the unnerving and cryptic music of the Finnish death metal scene, then look no further than this band, Slugathor, and Corpsessed for your fix - each of these bands offer superb and inspired Finndeath all their own across their few albums, and in reviewing Unending Degradation I have a chance to say what makes this circle such a likable snapshot of the greatness of cryptic death metal. Check each of these out. The newer Purtenance albums are also damn good.

Murky Visions Blending Together - 66%

WhenTheHypeDies, February 22nd, 2019

Carving a distinct path in the Finnish death metal aesthetic is no easy task, though Krypts has undeniably made waves amongst the underground. “Unending Degradation,” with its majestically gloomy Timo Ketola album cover and suitably crushing production, at first appears to be the exact prescription for black/death/doom bliss, an ecstatic rising/descending into the gravedirt their Finnish brethren love to wallow in. And while “Unending Degradation” takes you to this territory, it is not so much a burial whose opaque darkness is unforgettable as it is a bad dream quickly forgotten after waking.

From the opening of the album, there is an undeniable conviction in the pulverizing ichor the instruments craft. A syrupy bass clanks underneath the often-murky layers of guitars with nicely varied percussion, the latter instrument easily one of the album’s best aspects. While not necessarily the most innovative compositions, the album flows along like the blood-stained clouds on the album’s cover – layer upon layer of dreadful visions, even if there is not much differentiating one from the other. The occasional riff grabs hold of the listener – the opening riff and verse of “Open the Crypt” certainly clench themselves into your neck and spine. But the lack of dynamism on the album is its biggest issue – while there are some atmospheric interludes such as that at the end of “Day of Reckoning” that allow for a pause in the full-out instrumental assault, for the most part the album retains a similar level of headbanging intensity that steadily wears out its welcome.

While “Unending Degradation” crafts an enticing atmosphere, it does not achieve any sort of clear “climax” or final killing blow that truly knocks the listener out of their chair. The songwriting is competent and befittingly insidious, but tends to stay at the same level of intensity throughout the album. This ultimately makes the experience somewhat monotonous – while the songs themselves tend to be quite dynamic, the album as a whole is not. What “Unending” does get right is atmosphere, but the atmosphere needs to be accompanied by riffs that firmly stamp themselves on the brain.


66%

Krypts- Unending Degradation - 82%

stenchofishtar, March 23rd, 2014

With a demo ‘Open The Krypt’ and a self-titled EP behind them, ‘Unending Degradation’ is the first full-length album by Finnish band, Krypts.

Yet again, like many, they belong to a virtually endless crop of ‘new old school’ bands whose influences are firmly attached to underground acts of the early 1990′s. Thankfully, at a time where this trend gradually begins to wear itself thin, Krypts have a great knack for combining excellent riffs and motifs, and an atmosphere that perfectly compliments what they’re setting out to achieve.

Musical influences sit firmly within the style of Swedish and Finnish death metal, tending towards a grainy, buzzsawing, semi-cavernous sound, like a middle ground between both styles. A doom influence is hinted towards in the use of tempos, comparable somewhat to American bands such as Cianide and more recently, Disma. Songs often contain a vital hook, and as is the case with good composition and structure, give the songs a vital memetic edge that makes the listener want to dig into the rest of the record to unearth what lies beyond.

It would be easy to namedrop a plethora of bands of the early 90′s that make up the musical DNA of Krypts, but other obvious influences that spring to mind are ‘The Karelian Isthmus’ by Amorphis, ‘Shadows Of The Past’ by Sentenced and ‘The Ending Quest’ by Gorement.

‘Unending Degradation’ is an album of good quality. It is not original or groundbreaking in the way ‘Nespithe’ or ‘Obscura’ will be, but it sustains itself very well and doesn’t attempt to hide its influences. It’s a good example of orthodoxy put to the right end, and more bluntly, a case of where one puts the key in the right door.

http://stenchofishtar.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/krypts-unending-degradation/

Unending Degradation - 89%

Buarainech, January 31st, 2014

Compared to my jovial spirits and forgiving nature on the retro Death Metal wave back when I penned WAR ON ALL FRONTS #1 it is fair to say that a lot of it is starting to get tiring, boring in its repetitive dullness, and for that reason the title of Krypts' debut album doesn't exactly fill me ith confidence. With so many unimaginative bands parading around today then what is Death Metal experiencing if not “unending degradation?” Thankfully though this is one of the better albums of the current wave of Death Metal revivalism, one of the best. In fact, I think this may be the best Finnish Death Metal album since Demigod’s Slumber Of Sullen Eyes, and I include this years’ excellent Vorum debut Poisoned Void in that consideration too.

It is hard to nail down exactly why, but even from the haunting intro track ‘Perpetual Beyond’ and looking at the conventional but not overly familiar artwork I got an immediate sense of this being something a little bit special. “Blessed Entwinement” lays out the battle-plan will follow; doomy pacing with a titanic and gargantuan feel to the riffs, a rich and enveloping wall of sound in the guitar tone and a tasteful nod the the Finnish bands of the classic Death Metal era like Convulse and Phlegethon. On paper it’s as orthodox as any of the other Death Metal albums of the year but there’s something unique about the atmosphere, the fact that its difference is something so ephemeral and hard to nail down making it all the more unnerving- uncanny in the truest sense of that word. On this track the hypnotic and hauntingly murky feel is driven not just by the swirling mass of guitar but also the drums. That alone is something few bands I have ever heard have accomplished, but it’s certainly one of the things to make Krypts stand out.

In one sense the album peaks too early with the catchy highpoint of “Into The Crypt” but an album like this shouldn’t be judged on that one criterion alone, especially when its strength lies in its insidiousness, not its directness. Take the doomiest sections of the album. On the track “Inhale...”, for example- the tempo is slowed down here to an absolute crawl, but it is anything but neanderthal and dumbed down. Even in the most monolithically slow and crushing passages the guitars breathe in waves with little soporific nuances and subtleties changing every time. Hypnoticism seems to be a very popular spell to cast in Death Metal circles these days, but unlike their countrymen Vorum who flirt with Deathspell Omega-lite atmospherics, Krypts accomplish this with the minimal of effort.

What makes Krypts such an interesting band then is not just what they’ve created here on their first outing, but what they may accomplish yet when they get even more creative. This album is by no means perfect; the songs could do with more breathing space in between so that they are more clearly delineated and the vocals at times are a little repetitive and one-track, but compared to most of the other Death Metal revival albums I've encountered in 2013, it is an album that readily invites repeat listens. This belongs up there with the recent efforts by the likes of Tribulation, Morbus Chron, Horrendous and Encoffination because I can tell that in five years time it’s an album I’ll still be periodically returning to. [8/10]

From WAR ON ALL FRONTS A.D. 2013 zine- www.facebook.com/waronallfronts

Open the crypt..... - 69%

dismember_marcin, November 1st, 2013

I don’t know any of the Krypts’ previous releases – which were “Open the Crypt” demo form 2009 and “Krypts” EP from 2011 – but I was really looking forward to hear “Unending Degradation”, because I’ve heard a lot of positive comments on the previous recordings and everyone was saying that Krypts is definitely one of the best Finnish death metal bands around at the moment. So once “Unending Degradation” has been released on vinyl I got myself a copy of that and well - first thing, which I must say about it is that the artwork on the vinyl turned out to be way too dark. You just cannot see that many details you’d wish, almost anything at all, which is a shame of corpse, as Timo Ketola used to do some truly awesome art for metal bands and here – on this Baksiński influenced creepy defile landscape – he again did splendid job, but so what, if the dark print on the LP cover (much darker than on CD) makes it impossible to see the details and is too blurry?

OK, cover is one thing, but what about the music? Well, definitely I can see why Krypts has gained so much recognition from the maniacs, as their music is of very good quality and it fits the current “trends” perfectly, so if I say that these Finns play their death metal in old school and pretty doomy way then it should be no surprise to anyone. Yeah, that shocking value is something what I miss about some of such albums sometimes – it’s not the same great surprise anymore compared to the one, when you’ve listened to “Epitome of Darkness” or “The Horror” for the first time. From the musical point of view “Unending Degradation” has everything what every maniac should like though. Obviously this album reeks of the classic Finnish death metal scene from the early 90’s with some British, Dutch and even a bit of Swedish favour being added to this putrid effort. This album truly is damn heavy and massive sounding, with the slow playing being dominant in major part of it… but the sound is so deep and dense, so brutal that even when Krypts speeds up it still feels like you’re listening to something utterly colossal and wallcrushing, you just don’t feel this energy which would usually come together with faster death metal riffing and drumming. Here it feels like Krypts was closed in some fuckin chamber or catacomb, so the claustrophobic sense is close and there’s almost no life and energy within this music, so obscure and lifeless it seems. And that for some will be a great advantage of “Unending Degradation”, while some others will see it in different way… Well, personally I am somewhere in between.

I can admit that Krypts has some good moments on “Unending Degradation” and in general this album is really well composed and performed, but somehow it lacks something. I don’t know whether I have been spoiled too much by some other similar bands, but there are some around, which are just better than Krypts and this means that “Unending Degradation” is more of a mediocre effort and definitely it’s not as brilliant as some other albums, which I have had a chance to hear this or last year. Sometimes it tends be too slightly too monotonous for me and when it gets too repetitive and tiresome then it also feels to drag on too much and therefore it just isn’t 100% convincing and absorbing. I must give Krypts the justice though – there are several awesome riffs, like for instance I really like the instrumental opening track “Introeon: Perpetual Beyond”, with its nice Swedish feel to it, because of more melodic riffs… or “Open the Crypt”, “Blessed Entwinement”, so generally the album is solid and OK, but just maybe too monotonous. I think that each of these songs, which are on “Unending Degradation”, if released on two song singles, would sound really well and I would probably have not many things to complain about. But if you listen to for instance side A, you feel like first couple of songs are OK, but at the end of “Dormancy of the Ancients” I start to yawn. This song just feels too long… and the same happens on side B, really. I usually start listening to it with some interest, but it fades away after a while. So yeah, I have mixed feelings towards “Unending Degradation”… find yourself what this album is like, some of you will love it, while some others may have similar impression to mine.
Standout tracks: “Open the Crypt”, “Blessed Entwinement”
Final rate: 69/100

Krypts has arrived - 89%

Evil_Wicked_Twisted_Mind, February 19th, 2013

This is the definition of Death Metal as on RateYourMusic - Death Metal is a Metal sub-genre that began in the United States in the mid 1980s and was heavily influenced by Thrash Metal(particularly bands like Slayer and Kreator). Pioneers of the genre include bands such as Possessed, Death, and Morbid Angel. This genre often utilizes abrupt changes in tempo, key, and time signature, although this is not present in all forms of this music. Guitars are heavily distorted and down-tuned, and are often played using techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking. Chromatic chord progressions are often featured in Death Metal songs. Death Metal drummers typically play in very fast patterns and often employ double bass drum techniques and the use of blast beats to create a highly aggressive sound. Vocally, Death Metal uses a style consisting largely of guttural growls, grunts, and gurgles. Lyrics are bleak and often violent or anti-religious. Even today, this style is considered a largely underground form of music.

A pretty good definition covering almost all characteristics of death metal. Almost. This definition, and the definition of death metal as on Wikipedia are quite similar but both do not mention one very important characteristic of death metal. The atmosphere. Remember the golden era of death metal when the only aim of playing death metal wasn’t just playing blast beats and aggression but an inherent evil foul and wicked almost suffocating atmosphere? Not many in this ongoing new school of old school death metal have been able to grasp and master this concept, hell, not many of the old school bands were able to do it unless you’re a band member of Incantation or Autopsy but Krypts seem to have grabbed that elusive devil by the collar and make it its own and in the process have written a chapter on death metal atmosphere that would have made the masters proud.

Krypts, a Finnish band have been around for a while. Even if you’re a new band when you come from a country that has birthed the bastardly putrid sons of bands like Demilich, Demigod, Convulse (who, for those living under a rock have come up with a pretty nifty little EP earlier this year) , Adramelech, Xysma, Cartilage (to name a very very few) you carry of extremely legendary tag of Finnish death metal which can be a huge burden to carry. They formed in 2008 and have released a self titled EP in 2001 and a demo called ‘Open The Crypts in 2009 and since then have lived up to their expectations and released stuff which created ripples of excitement in the death metal community. A glance of at the album art which has been inked by THE Timo Kotela who has made the famous Deathspell Omega and Watain covers has also done artwork for bands like Kaamos, Teitanblood, Katharsis and Dead Congregation is a visual showcase of the music contained within the debut album labelled ‘Unending Degradation’ . It’s bleak, dark, and oppressive yet possessing a sense of all that is unholy.

If ‘Open The Crypts’ and ‘Krypts’ were teasers into the putrid make of death metal this band was about to churn out then ‘Unending Degradation’ is the full monty of unabashed, rancid death metal that if I may be completely honest may have surprised many of fan of this band including me as something this heavy and lumbering was not expected. But then again it may not be as surprising considering Dark Descent records have signed ‘em up, a label that over the years has signed only the best of the best to their catalogue of death metal, some bands being Adversarial, Goreaphobia, Lvcifyre and Anhedonist. The album consists of 8 tracks and lasting nearly 40 minutes has 3 tracks from their 2009 demo. These tracks are ‘Open The Crypt’, ‘Dormancy Of Ancients’ and ‘Day Of Reckoning’. These tracks have been re-recorded and given an atmosphere and feel that make it go consistently with the other tracks of the album instead of just being copy pasted and makng them seem out of place, which once again is not every surprising since Dark Descent is anything but an amateur. The music can be described as a mixture of Death and DeathDoom with its traditional Finnish styled downtuned heavy goodness, sepulchral bass lines, visceral bellows and sunken drums that mesh together to create an unforgivingly dark, deep and debauched atmosphere. Throughout the album there are various tempo changes which change between mid paced and slow lumbering with well thought of precision. After all its the heavy and slow riffs that make for a more morbid atmosphere than the hyperspeed technical ones. Each time the gear is changed it brings about the unmitigated change in the cavernous atmosphere which the band intended to do so in the first place. Whether the riffs crawl along at a maggot like pace or a faster more paced approach the band never meanders from its pivotal aim which is of creating a monstrously perverted atmosphere.

Throughout the album the band permeates an esoteric intelligence by showing it knows what it wants backed by an unbridled creativity of the instruments through which the bands can bring forth unto the listener what the band needs. The song writing and song placing on the album is another brilliant feature innate here. The way the band uses extended outros as intros to the upcoming tracks as well as further piling to the suffocating atmosphere and how the band meshes the slow placed lumbering riffs of the track ‘Inhale...’ as a precursor to the unhinged crushing brutality of the following track ‘The Black Smoke’ shows the vision of the band which is further cemented in this all killer, no filler consistent release when the band finishes of with a bang with their final track ‘Beneath The Archaic’ which is masterpiece of modern death/doom and everything the band stands for.

Devastating stuff. Unending Degradation has cemented Krypts place in the modern death metal scene by creating an album that is so full of emotion and by merging its old and new stuff with amazingly perfect liquidity. This is an incarnation of old school death metal.. the Finnish way. In a year that boasts of releases by Zealotry, Convulse, Mitochondrion, Lantern, T.O.O.H, Mithras, Vorum, Portal and Suffocation amongst others and with 10 of the 12 months of this year still left toppling this beat beast of an album will not be an easy task, and if some band old or new does manage to best this.. well then this year will bring back a smile on the face of an old school death metal fan.

Enbalmed in festering humanity - 73%

autothrall, February 19th, 2013

Krypts is one of a wave of younger Finnish death metal acts that, unlike many of their Swedish peers formed over the past 5-10 years, do not seek to merely copy their influences, but return to a primitive early 90s motif through sheer riffing power and atmosphere, two facets of their full-length debut Unending Degradation which are not in contention. That's not to say that the band does not evoke nostalgia for countrymen of decades past, like Convulse and Demigod, but there is no sense in listening through the album that they're above establishing their own crude and concussive identity, while fitting in snugly with the 'cavernous' death metal aesthetic made so popular in Europe and the US these past few years. It's neither genius in its construction, or rocket science in its implementation, but if you're a backer of grim acts like Father Befouled, Funebrarum, Anhedonist, or fellow Finns like Swallowed or Lie in Ruins, I have confidence that Krypts should prove right up... err...down your alley.

They're able to accomplish a lot of density here with fairly simplistic chord progressions, which do not always manifest into the most impressive or memorable of riffs, but maintain the group's crushing quote of rank and foul atmosphere. Songs tend to favor a slow, sluggish pace over which the guttural vocals can stretch out and resonate, but there are occasional bursts to a more festive d-beat tempo. The use of chords here is far more legion than tremolo picked patterns; and they'll often adjoin the churning, chasm-spanning rhythm guitars with dour, mournful melodies that shift the material into a death/doom territory. What separates this from a lot of similar recordings in that whole post-Incantation/Autopsy scene is the loud use of the bass guitar: this thing is murky as hell, cranked to provide a tar-like substrate to the riffing, even if the actual composure of the lines isn't exactly unique or compelling. Coupled with the bludgeoning growl of Antti Kotiranta, as lifeless and bleak as a mortuary wall, Unending Degradation really captures this unflinching sense of morbidity and pathos that never really cedes through the 40 minute play time. They'll break up the weight of the chords with some spikes of a more dissonant melody in the strings, or unleash a brutal undercurrent of rolling double bass drum (as in "Dormancy of the Ancients") to enhance the brutality to beyond mere drudgery, but ultimately this is a consistent, oppressive piece of work that seeks no subtlety in how it casts you into its shadows.

The flourishes of reverb and atmosphere are well done here, but I will admit that it takes a particular mood to really appreciate such a thickly negative slab of suffering. This is hardly monotonous writing, and the band are not merely recycling the same riff endlessly unto boredom, but Unending Degradation does sacrifice a certain level of dynamic range as it spades the listener into a ditch; and I, for one, would not have minded a bit more contrast to really let those heavier moments hit me in the gut. There's also the fact that many of the individual riffs are far from mesmerizing or unique. Functional, and fitting to the mood here, but it wouldn't hurt to add just a fraction of complexity, or perhaps render some of those cryptic melodies into something more evil and hypnotic. Despite this, though, I really feel as if Krypts knows its audience pretty well, and there's definitely a swath of the 'new old school' fandom that will spin the shit out of this record. It's brooding, and sorrowful to the point of sinister somnolence, and thus easy enough to recommend to fans of no-bullshit, no-gimmicks, effective (if not amazing) death metal which serves the purpose of drowning out all sun and cheerfulness from a room. I wouldn't listen to this while heavily medicated, though!

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com