Cryptopsy are a Canadian Technical Brutal Death Metal band, originally under the name Necrosis in 1988, by drummer Mike Atkin, guitarist Steve Thibault and vocalist Dan Greening (nicknamed "Lord Worm" because he would dig up and ingest worms on stage). In 1992, after a few recordings of their demos, they changed the name to Cryptopsy in 1992.
By 1994, bassist Kevin Weagle had been replaced by Martin Fergusson, and Dave Galea left and was replaced by lead guitarist Jon Levasseur. This line-up recorded their debut album, Blasphemy Made Flesh, originally independent was licensed to a now-defunct label. The album was met with acclaim in the underground Canadian Scene.
In 1996, they released the legendary None So Vile, with Levasseur being the main songwriter. To this day, the album is recognized as a blueprint of Technical Death Metal. Despite the success with the underground, Worm left, partially due to musical differences and to pursue his career as an English Teacher. Vocalist Mike DiSalvo became his replacement for Whisper Supremacy and ...And then You'll Beg, both under the more popular Century Media. After a few tours, DiSalvo left to spend more time with his wife and daughter. The Live ablum had Martin Lacroix on duty. Because of his poor English, he was unable to contribute lyrics .
Worm came back in 2003, with Levasseur leaving due to loss of interest in 2005. Alex Auburn did guitar duties on Once Was Not. A followup, originally named The Book of Suffering was planned to be a double album, but Worm had left again due to health reasons, though the rest of the band says he was fired. in 2007, 3 Mile Scream Vocalist Matt McGachy was the replacement. The Unspoken King was released in 2008, and is deemed their most reviled album to date even today.
On May 25, 2011, the band announced on their official Facebook page that former lead guitarist and major contributor Jon Levasseur returned to the band. Additionally, bassist Eric Langlois decided to take a break from Cryptopsy, and Youri Raymond took his place on bass. On December 9, 2011, Raymond announced his departure from the band. Cryptopsy released their Self-Titled Album on September 14, 2012, returning to their old sound, with McGachy's vocals being highly improved.
As of 2015, they have announced a Kickstarter campaign for The Book of Suffering: Tome 1, the first EP in a series to come.
Current Members:
- Flo Mounier – drums (1992–present)
- Christian Donaldson – lead, rhythm guitars (2005–present)
- Matt McGachy – lead vocals (2007–present)
- Olivier Pinard – bass guitar (2012–present)
Notable Past Members
- Dan "Lord Worm" Greening – lead vocals (1988–1997, 2003–2007)
- Mike DiSalvo – lead vocals (1997–2001)
- Martin Lacroix – lead vocals (2001–2003)
- Youri Raymond – guitar, backing vocals (2009–2011, 2012), bass guitar (2011)
- Jon Levasseur – lead, rhythm guitars (1993–2005, 2011–2012)
- Eric Langlois – bass guitar (1996–2011)
- Mike Atkin – drums (1988–1992) with Necrosis
Discography:
- Blasphemy Made Flesh (1994)
- None So Vile (1996)
- Whisper Supremacy (1998)
- ...And Then You'll Beg (2000)
- Once Was Not (2005)
- The Unspoken King (2008)
- Cryptopsy (2012)
- The Book of Suffering: Tome 1 (2015) - EP
- The Book of Suffering: Tome 2 (2018) - EP
- As Gomorrah Burns (2023)
Tropes Displayed By this Band:
- All Drummers Are Animals: Flo Mounier is a slightly different example, while he does appear particularly calm when he is playing the drums, he thrashes his arms around extremely fast and erratically keeping with his style.
- Book Ends: None So Vile starts with, and ends with a sample.
- Brutal Death Metal: Trope Codifier for the genre.
- Careful with That Axe: Lord Worm is one of the undisputed masters of this.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The narrator of "Slit Your Guts" tortures an unfortunate person to death as a "correcting measure".
- Deathcore: The Unspoken King, much to the dismay of fans. They were also a major influence on a lot of early acts; furthermore, ...And Then You'll Beg had a lot of musical elements that probably would have been called deathcore had it come out a couple years later.
- Digital Piracy Is Evil: Why Maggie left. Never-mind that people weren't buying The Unspoken King because they didn't want to fork cash over, but because they hated the album so much.
- Epic Rocking: "Screams Go Unheard" (7:20), "Angelskingarden" (7:07), "Bound Dead" (6:26), and "We Bleed" (6:18).
- Every Episode Ending: At present, every Cryptopsy concert finishes with "Phobophile", often also in conjunction with "Slit Your Guts".
- Gorn:
- One of their main lyrical themes, though definitely not as over-the-top as, say, Cannibal Corpse.
- This is mostly averted with Once Was Not, focusing more on the horrors of war, diseases, and fear of death.
- A lot of their self-titled album seems to focus on Canadian history, although a lot of death is involved along with some urban legends. Both of The Book of Suffering EPs mainly touch upon historical events, too.
- Grindcore: A definite influence, and along with Origin, they were among the first tech acts to have overt grindcore elements. Furthermore, ...And Then You'll Beg bordered on deathgrind, particularly on tracks like "Soar and Envision Sore Vision".
- Harsh Vocals:
- Lord Worm specialized in deep, zombie-like grunts, though they were less deep on Once Was Not.
- Mike DiSalvo used a more standard hardcore bark/roar.
- Matt McGachy's vocals originally alternated between low pig squeals and high-pitched screams before he eventually settled on a mid-ranged roar surprisingly reminiscent of Sven de Caluwe.
- Horrible History Metal: The self-titled is a pseudo-concept album based around various unsolved murders and other gruesome and bizarre occurrences from throughout Canadian history. Tome 1 appears to be continuing this trend, while Tome 2 expands its reach outside of Canada, as "Sire of Sin" is about Ricky "Davidito" Rodriguez and the murder of one of his childhood sexual abusers and subsequent suicide, while "Fear His Displeasure" is about the captivity and escape of Natascha Kampusch.
- I Am the Band: Flo Mounier, though Chris Donaldson has become something akin to his second-in-command.
- I Love the Dead: "Lichmistress".
- Incredibly Long Note: The 30-second scream at the end of "Open Face Surgery".
- In Name Only: If Cryptopsy and Necrosis are considered the same band, they're this, seeing as how Mounier stuck when they changed names, but he joined Necrosis later when Atkin left.
- Lead Bassist: Eric Langlois and Olivier Pinard are both Type As.
- Lead Drummer: Flo is, along with Pete Sandoval, Mike Smith, Derek Roddy, George Kollias, and John Longstreth, viewed as one of the defining death metal drummers. Along with Longstreth and fellow Montreal resident Alex Pelletier, he was also one of the first big-name users of gravity blastsnote .
- Lighter and Softer:
- The Unspoken King, but that was arguably the least of the complaints of that album.
- This could be in effect lyrically, also, as the older material centered around more horror-stylized gore themes, while the later records mostly cover real life incidents.
- Metal Band Mascot: The dragon that appeared in the cover art for Whisper Supremacy later became their mascot.
- Metal Scream: Lord Worm was a Type 2 with occasional Type 3 highs and was famous for his extremely long held notes, Mike DiSalvo was a Type 1, Martin Lacroix was a Type 2, and Matt McGachy is somewhere between a Type 1 and a Type 2.
- Nightmare Fuel: In-universe, this is what the protagonist from "Phobophile" thirsts on.
- A Party, Also Known as an Orgy: "Crown of Horns", though it's definitely not for pleasure...
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Olivier Pinard.
- Progressive Metal: Once Was Not had shades of this.
- Revolving Door Band: And How! Things have settled down, however, as Christian Donaldson and Matt McGachy have been in the band for twelve and ten years, respectively; Oli Pinard is the only relatively new face at five years.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Several of the songs on the self-titled and Tome 1 are about relatively current murder cases; "Detritus (The One They Kept)" takes the cake, as Guy Turcotte was in the middle of his trial when the song was recorded and was ultimately found guilty of second-degree murder a few weeks after the EP's release. "Framed in Blood" was almost as current, as Luka Magnotta's first-degree murder conviction occurred around the time that Tome 1 was being written.
- Sampling: None So Vile starts with a sample from The Exorcist III and ends with a sample from Army of Darkness.
- Scare Chord: "Slit Your Guts" starts off with a sustained, dissonant riff.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Lord Worm, which is sort of to be expected from an English teacher.
- Soprano and Gravel: Only on The Unspoken King, where clean vocals were utilized.
- Spoken Word in Music: "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, for the arrow that flieth by day..."
- Start My Own: When Lord Worm left the first time, he started the Black Metal band Rage Nucleaire, but didn't do anything with it until around 2011, approx 4 years after he left a second time. Mike DiSalvo, meanwhile, started the experimental death metal project Akurion with Oli Pinard, Rob Milley, and Tommy McKinnon, as well as the Avant-Garde Metal project Coma Cluster Void.
- Take That, Critics!: "It's Dinner Time", an interlude not avaliable on any studio recording, was basically this to the reaction of The Unspoken King.
- Technical Death Metal: One of the generally more well-loved bands of the genre thanks to None So Vile, at least until The Unspoken King was released. This was rectified with their self-titled album.
- The Smurfette Principle: Maggie Durand was their only female member in all of Cryptopsy history.
- "Go ahead and run! RUN HOME AND CRY TO MOMMA!!!"
