If you ask me, this year is really shaping up to be one of the wildest in the last few where we see each and every style of metal not just having new names with great talent but veterans who have returned to us in peak form with such magnificence that it all commands our attention. Here, I already figured that I was going to have my hands full of the latter given the releases from Cattle Decapitation, Cannibal Corpse, Kataklysm, and several more, but, clearly, the universe has other plans in mind. It has been eleven years since we last got a full-length from Cryptopsy, and it’s finally now that the patient will get their just rewards while the unexpecting will be utterly pummeled in every form.

While we have seen a pair of EPs since Cryptopsy’s eponymous work in 2012, it is hard to say that they really scratched that itch for old-school death metal with a modern ferocity and approach that Cryptopsy has always been able to bring to the table. In top form with a wild set of eight tracks across a bombastic 33-minute runtime, “As Gomorrah Burns” stands as the triumphant return of a long-established megalith of death metal the likes of which many of us have been impatiently waiting to see, salivating helplessly all the while. And in every possible way, Cryptopsy delivers. Not a single opportunity is missed nor was any soul left untainted as this record took form with Cryptopsy showing us what they’re still very much made of as each track bleeds into the next with every single one of them a vision of eldritch terror that is never lacking in its rivers of blood. Between the monolithic riffs, a fiery approach that won’t stop until humanity is long burnt to ashes, and power that has long been a force to reckon with, “As Gomorrah Burns” sees Cryptopsy as their best in many years. It’s such that the work doesn’t just stand as an occasion to be excited about purely because of the return of Cryptopsy, but it heralds in what could very easily be seen as the most powerful and compelling piece from the band since the turn of the century.

I do not say such things lightly. Cryptopsy’s reputation spectacularly precedes them as anyone familiar with death metal should be well aware of what these guys have long been capable of, yet it is every step along the sulphuric streets of Gomorrah that we see the imagery, power, and mastery over death metal come to life in terrific detail. It is only fitting that Cryptopsy would return with such splendor, but I think few things could have prepared for the bloodbath that is “As Gomorrah Burns”.

“As Gomorrah Burns” releases on September 8th via Nuclear Blast Records!

LISTEN to singles from “As Gomorrah Burns” on Bandcamp here.

LIKE Cryptopsy on Facebook here.