Sometimes concept albums fall into the trap of just collecting some themes into a lose story, writing 10 songs about it and calling it a day. Cryptic Shift work hard to buck this trend, something they definitely achieved with Visitations from Enceladus and the bucking continues with the latest offering Overspace and Supertime.
For anyone who has had the privilege of digesting Visitiations they’ll know that Cryptic Shift are a supremely talented bunch of individuals, and maybe thought that there wasn’t really anywhere for them to go in terms of more technicality. However Overspace and Supertime find the band pushing the boundaries further in what could be considered more than just another technical metal album. In fact after several listens it seems that the band has blown straight through the traditional song structure music album area and into full blown space opera, movie soundtrack Astrodeath.
From the first notes you are whisked away on a journey, a continuation on the story from Visitations and plunged violently into the swirling maelstrom of thrash metal riffs firing backwards and forwards over drums which add a further layer to the madness that ensues each track or ‘chapter’ has a specific role to play in the composition as a whole further cementing the element of “illustrative imagination,” as drummer Ryan Sheperson elucidated. “We’re all massive Sci-fi nerds, so making an album like this and Visitations came naturally. Star Wars is a big influence on us, and we try to capture the idea that the music creates its own visuals as you work your way through the album.” It is clear that not only do Cryptic Shift take their work seriously, it also creates endless enjoyment for them, fulfilling, challenging and huge in its scope all at the same time.
One thing that does stand out on the new album is the evolution of the drums. Where before Sheperson was the foundational bedrock for the expansive spacey sound of the other instruments, now he also brings his own flavour to the forefront, the fills and overall drum work has stepped up massively and often times brings to mind the jazz fill heavy style of Bran Dailor from Mastodon (although the comparisons do end there).
When asked about continuing the story, they said, “it could continue, that’s the beauty of the way we write the music, it could continue, it could stop, we could branch off into other stories, maybe we don’t even know what’s going to happen yet.” This here is the crux of the ethos the band is built around, they write cinematic music, that not only needs the story to back it up, but cries out for it, and they do it at such a high level they cannot be overlooked in the current death metal scene, that can so often be littered with bands recycling Mortician or Cannibal Corpse riffs and themes, or just wholesale throwing their lot in to produce music that worships a specific time period or band from the genre. It’s safe to say that Cryptic Shift need to get some plaudits, and Overspace and Supertime should well be on any top album of the year lists come December, regardless if you’re aquatinted with Astrodeath or not.