Kryptos: Spiral Ascent

As Kryptos get ready for their second album ‘The Ark of Gemini‘ due to release this July on Old School Metal Records (you can read the diary from the recording process by guitarist/vocalist Nolan Lewis here) I thought I’d take a closer look at their debut album ‘Spiral Ascent’.

Firstly, it would be remiss of me not to mention that the cover art is done by Dark Tranquility guitarist Niklas Sundin. Belting out unfettered metal cuts over the course of 10 tracks, Kryptos stay true to their roots of thrash and New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Songs like “Altered Destinies” and “Clandestine Element” have already become classics in the Indian metal scene. The guitar riffs prodding and chugging along the steady rhythm section, the solos never taking the leading role, rather following the path of the song. And the vocals too are never the focal point, merely a vehicle to carry the lyrical imagery.

But it’s on the latter part of the album, on songs like “Forsaken” (very Iron Maiden) and “Descension” with acoustic intros and passages, that the band forges its identity, embodying the album in its raw and primal, yet carefully constructed, power surge. The increasingly melodic and intricate parts act as a counter-sunk to the maddening thrash aggression.

On the band’s website, their biography mentions that their sole purpose is to pay homage to the ’80s metal scene. Well, ‘Spiral Ascent’ certainly does that and sits comfortably alongside the metal albums from the ’80s we grew up listening to.