Cryptic Shift allegedly hail from Leeds in England, or so they would have us believe, personally I prefer to think they left their home planet, for fun’s sake, lets call it Enceladus, on a craft powered by metal detonations of an alien origin, that fires our intrepid band members from the outer reaches of our solar system with its coldness and emptiness to land here on this insignificant little orb to give us a four track album “Visitations from Enceladus” that tells the tales and the sights of their journey through changes in tempo that at times gloriously glide through Proggy and Tech death through to the ludicrous velocity of downright Death Metal.
“Moonbelt Immolator” runs nigh on twenty six minutes and is an outrageous mix of soft guitars leads interspersed with classic riffs, radical blast beats, vocals that float and progresses from Death growls to clean and harmonious combined with the most mental tempo changes and percussion arrangements you could want to hear. This really is an impressive journey especially with headphones on as you kinda get swept up in the whole trip. This is a Rock opus of enormous grandeur, as this track shows all the technical and musical skills of our intrepid travellers through their impeccable use of percussion, guitars and vocals. There’s so much going on through this, but it’s so superbly and carefully crafted and produced it ebbs and flows around you like a cosmic wave.
Following on from this humongous track, “(Petrified in the) Hypogean Gaol” will bury you in a subterranean mire and leave you without all hope, but in return, it will reward you with plenty of fret board havoc, grinding tempos and powerful vocals that combine to provide a technical virtuosity in grooves and melody. “The Arctic Chasm” and “Planetary Hypnosis” round out our epic voyage with some blisteringly technical riffage, scorching blast beats and eminently quality Death snarling vocals.
This now completes our grand, and some may say, audacious journey through the alien system that Cryptic Shift have taken us on. Please place your tray tables and seats in the upright position, put on your seat belts and get ready to land. Oh, by the way, just to keep with the Sci Fi theme, yep, the album is released on May 4. This metal we like hmmm!
Rating – 4/5
https://bloodharvestrecords.bandcamp.com/album/visitations-from-enceladus
The Metal Wanderlust 