Like virtually all musicians in the world, the members of European futuristic extreme metal band Cryptosis are doing the best they can, while trying to remain optimistic during the global Covid-19 pandemic.
“We all live around one hour from each other in the Netherlands,” shared vocalist/guitarist Laurens Houvast. “With the pandemic restrictions here and throughout the EU, there are no gatherings with people outside your own home. So that, and the distance has made it difficult for us to practice much during recent times, but we have made progress with some new music and stuff. It’s just really strange times and we have to live under these guidelines until things get better."
Luckily, the band’s morale has been up, as bassist Frank te Riet said. “For all of us, keeping busy is the best way to cope with the lockdowns,” he said. “I’m personally lucky during this time to be so busy with work, and I work in web development and graphic design, so it’s been very busy. Plus of course with our music that also takes time, but it’s definitely a positive outlet.”
As many artists have done live stream concerts and online shows for fans, Cryptosis still leaves that possibility in the future. “We’ve seen some of the live streams. They have been great, Asphyx played one last week it was really cool,” said drummer Marco Prij.
“The thing is, that we are open to it and it’s possible in the future we could do something like that, but we just have to organize it and put it together, it takes a lot of the technology in place for it to happen, but we’re definitely not against it at all,’ said. Houvast.
Cryptosis is a futuristic extreme metal band that blends black metal, death metal, thrash and progressive elements to form a sound unique; imagine a blending of Hypocrisy, Fear Factory, Meshuggah, Dimmu Borgir and Rush.
As Houvast explains, Cryptosis evolved from a thrash band that began under the moniker, Distillator.”When we were younger we loved thrash and played it but as we grew older and as musicians we began to play different styles and it came out in this new sound, but as for our influences, you can definitely say we all love bands like Rush, and they inspire our sound,” explained te Riet. “But we like all music, and you can hear our love of thrash, death metal, black metal, power metal, prog rock, we love it all.”
With one view of the band’s video for the track, ‘The Prospect of Immortality,’ the imagery and associated vision of the band becomes terrifyingly clear - a futuristic dystopia on planet Earth, where machines and robots control human minds.
“We just like thinking about the world, and reading books like '1984', and 'Brave New World', which seem to be coming true more and more nowadays,” said te Riet. “Plus, it’s also the fact that we all grew up with all those science fiction movies, like Star Wars, and even later, Blade Runner and movies like Terminator, this, and what is happening in the world, just to think of the future is what inspires us,” he said.
“Also, now, especially with shows like Black Mirror, we really just use this all as inspiration to make our music,” said Houvast. “With science, and things like A.I. and robotics, and these virtual realities it’s just fascinating to think about, and we love just letting our minds open.”
The track comes from the band’s Century Media Records debut Bionic Swarm, set for release on March 26th. The concept album features a collection of eight stories delving into dystopia on planet Earth in the year 2149. Each song explores almost eerie technological advancements crating a sort of futuristic void with the perspectives of both human and A.I. working into the narrative.
While the excitement of debuting a record is always something to beam about, the band remains cautiously optimistic about being able to share the live iteration of their work. The band currently has tour dates in place for 2021 but explain, “Of course that could change depending on how the situation with the pandemic is. Our governments have not made any cancelations and we plan to tour unless told otherwise.”
While dealing with the continued uncertainty of the world as we have all come to know it, the band continues their charge of metallic meld, recently sharing another chapter from their dark, futuristic opus with the track "Transcendence". Again skipping forward to the year 2149, humanity's penchant for convenience and instantaneous results has created a population that is smarter and more creative than ever before - but at what cost? "...since the new technology is so addictive that society can't live without it anymore. Mankind has become the host... of a parasite."
Cryptosis have seen the future and it is a dark, scary place.
Bionic Swarm arrives March 26th on Century Media Records. Pre-order the album - HERE
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