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Unending Degradation (2013) is the debut full-length studio album to be released by Finnish death metal act Krypts. The band has previously released a single demo and an EP, with a few songs from the demo also finding their way onto Unending Degradation. All the members were previously involved in the demo level act The Beheading (formerly Self-Hate).
The music on Unending Degradation is more or less straight up death metal of the no nonsense variety, but spiced up with traces of doom metal, which add flavour to Krypts' sound but never really dominate it. Vocalist Antti Kotiranta (also bassist) has a very deep growl, which is very suitable for the music which is intense right across the board. A side effect of his performance is that, like with many in this game, you'll have to have an exceptional ear to really make much out of what's coming out of the man's mouth, but fortunately death metal's never been a genre with singing along in mind, so when treated in the sense that the growl is just another instrument, Kotiranta's performance works like a charm.
This is in addition of course to the instrumental work of the trio, which is excellent, becoming the highlight of every song on the album. This is definitely an album for the heavy riff lovers. I especially like the way the album seems to trick the listener into thinking it's going to fall victim to monotony, and then a song, let's use the clear album highlight Open The Crypt for example, suddenly veers off in a direction that it hasn't yet taken and becomes reinvigorated with life. The music also has it's atmospheric moments despite the riff driven approach, no doubt coming with those doom metal influences that can be heard. Check out the closing Beneath the Archaic, another highlight of the release, for the best example of this. Just to name drop another highlight from this very solid album, Blessed Entwinement is a great way for Krypts to let their listeners know what they're all about.
Unending Degradation isn't an album that consistently wows to the level of those highlights I singled out, but this is an album that won't ever leave you feeling less than satisfied with what Krypts delivered and overall it's one hell a debut effort, to the point that an exceptional grade rating is just about deserved. If they can keep this up then I imagine their next release is going to have some real gold in it.
85/100
(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/krypts-unending-degradation-t3032.html)