Words by Kurt Orzeck
Extreme metal is the ultimate dick-measuring sect in a genre where the practice is already too prevalent anyway. (And one wonders why there aren’t more female metal musicians; at last count, the rate was about one woman for every nine dudes.) Every music genre has its radicals and envelope-pushers, so it’s only natural that a set of the most fanatical apply consistent pressure on bands to play faster, heavier, louder … you know how the Lemmy expression goes.
Thing is, extreme metal rocks, and for all of its enduring qualities, it’s now roughly four decades old. Age can be a delicate subject to broach especially when it pertains to bands, but we’ve begun entering a phase where musicians who sacrificed their bodies so fans would raise holy hell at shows are starting to pay the price. Perhaps none more than Cryptopsy, who rely on the figurative and literal backbone of mythical metal drummer Flo Munier. Assaulting audiences with a type of technical and brutal death metal unbeknownst to most concertgoers and certainly unbeknownst to their parents, the Montreal collective established their reputation and, ultimately, legacy, thanks to Munier joining Cryptopsy … Siri, when did Flo Munier join Cryptopsy? … 33 years ago.
“I’ve been in the band for 17 years or so,” vocalist Matt McGachy told Knotfest by comparison, noting that formidable tenure in a single music project is still eclipsed by Munier’s three-decades-plus reign. “He tries to just focus on the present. And doesn't really pay attention or realize everything that he's done.”
Formed in Montreal in the late ‘80s, Cryptopsy continues to reign as the king of extreme-metal in that and most other Canadian cities. They’ve got Katakysm beat by three years. Not only did Gorguts materialize in 1989, but they’re pads are about a 90-minute drive from Montreal. Sure, you can point to other bands as more intense or even violent. But ask yourself: If you get stabbed to death, does it really matter if the perpetrator jabbed you 35 or 42 times? Beating a dead human isn’t too far removed from beating a dead horse, right?
A look at Cryptopsy’s catalog reveals eight LPs, two EPs, a live album, a demo and an appearance on a compilation. That’s not nothing, but when tossing in more than 500 concerts and festival appearances—and 17 former members—that’s a helluva slog.
“Flo's told me the band has never stopped,” McGachy reminisces. “We kept going. The band has never broken up— and we're going to just keep pushing until he can't blast (beat) anymore.”
If you smell a whiff of possible retirement in the air, your nose is not broken. Professional baseball’s best catcher—the most taxing position on the diamond, due to insufferable pressure on the knees)—Gabby Street, finally cried uncle just shy of 49 years old. Surely, X-rays showing the wear and tear on Street’s body would make any radiologist shudder.
Note to Flo, who turns 51 in June: Best avoid the doctor—until, you know, something serious happens.
In the meantime, Munier’s work ethic has proven infectious among the other members of Cryptopsy, who proved they’re in the long haul with the release of 2023’s As Gomorrah Burns—the band’s first studio release in 11 years.
“I’m going to do a family one-kilometer run tomorrow at 10 a.m.,” McGachy says during our phone call, with his kids horsing around in the background. “I like to keep busy. I have the band. I have the podcast. I'm working. I've got the kids. I'm very intertwined with the whole brewery scene too. In St. Paul, I had the opportunity to go to a brewery one day. And then the next day, I got to go to another brewery.”
McGachy continues: “Touring behind the record “surpassed all our expectations. We had my bassist (Oliver Pinard) back for the first time in five years, because he's also in Cattle Decapitation. It was nice to have him onstage with us again; we have (a great) dynamic interaction.”
Cryptopsy got a raft of reassurance the likes of which they never had before when As Gomorrah Burns nabbed the Juno Award for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year, the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys. That record has proven to be so much more than just a comeback affair or a stale victory lap that so many bands feel compelled to put out to justify incessant touring.
“I really finally discovered my true voice on As Gomorrah Burns,” McGachy discloses. “After 16 years of being a death-metal singer, I finally am having more comfortable time onstage. It's super-easy for me now. I'm trying to push myself into screaming a little bit lower, keeping the clarity of what I'm saying as priority number one, and then creating just more and more weird, extreme vocals and catchy parts—but without mimicking anyone else, like really just leaning into who I am.”
Lucky for McGachy, Cryptopsy’s fans and presumably the other members of the band, while retirement is about a decade off in their estimation, they’re giddy about the work they have left to do. Mounier and long-time guitarist Christian Donaldson are already writing the band’s next record, McGachy reveals.
Between Cryptopsy’s longevity—let’s be honest: seniority, bordering on —the decade-long drought between new studio albums and the sheer number of bands now saturating the death-metal scene, what surprises McGachy most is that “we're more popular now than we ever used to be. A majority of our recent headlining dates sold out. So either we're becoming more popular or death metal is just hot in general, and these kids are coming out just because it's a show.
“What it reminds me of is myself as a nu-metal child, part of that whole crowd that was attending Ozzfest in the late nineties,” he muses. “People that necessarily don't fit into norms. They seem to have fallen into death metal now. Bands like Sanguisugabogg are playing huge, huge rooms to young, young kids. It's great for death metal—and we're riding the wave.”
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Cryptopsy will join Decapitated along with special guests Warbringer and Carnation for the Inferal Bleeding Over Europe 2025 tour which begins this May. See the complete list of dates and cities below.
Infernal Bleeding Over Europe 2025
featuring Decapitated w/ Cryptopsy, Warbringer & Carnation
03.05.25 UK - London / Incineration Fest
04.05.25 UK - Exeter / Phoenix
05.05.25 UK - Cardiff / The Globe
06.05.25 UK - Newcastle / Anarchy Brewery
07.05.25 UK - Glasgow / Slay
08.05.25 UK - Manchester / Academy 2
09.05.25 UK - Birmingham / XOYO
10.05.25 UK - Nottingham / Rescue Rooms
11.05.25 UK - Norwich / The Waterfront
13.05.25 FR - Lille / The Black Lab
14.05.25 NL - Enschede / Metropool
15.05.25 DE - Munich / Backstage
16.05.25 CH - Aarau / KiFF
17.05.25 DE - Lindau / Vaudeville
18.05.25 AT - Vienna / Szene
19.05.25 HU - Budapest / Dürer Kert
20.05.25 CZ - Prague / Fuchs2
21.05.25 DE - Schweinfurt / Stattbahnhof
22.05.25 DE - Dresden / Blauer Salon
23.05.25 PL - Kraków / Hype Park
24.05.25 PL - Warsaw / Proxima
26.05.25 DE - Berlin / Hole44
27.05.25 DK - Aarhus / Voxhall
28.05.25 DE - Hamburg / Logo
29.05.25 DE - Vechta / Gulfhaus
30.05.25 DE - Dortmund / Junkyard
31.05.25 BE - Sint-Niklaas / Casino
01.06.25 FR - Paris / La Machine
03.06.25 DE - Frankfurt / Das Bett
04.06.25 DE - Karlsruhe / Substage
05.06.25 IT - Milan / Legend Club
06.06.25 IT - Bologna / Locomotiv
07.06.25 FR - Lyon / Lions Metal Fest
