The Cannabis Crypt has been reopened and it’s throwing a massive cloud of smoke over the city of Lynn and surrounding areas.
At long last the band has put out the follow-up to their murky yet destructive 2019 debut album, Sinister Grip, and you can tell they put every bit of effort and ganja-laden influence into this one.
It’s been a couple years since I last spoke to them but hearing them rehearse the completed tracks for the album had me amped for the release. Their specialty has always been in soundtracking people’s hotbox sessions, those first few moments of experimentation with substances we all go through while packed in the backseats of strangers' cars with disgusting slam metal blasting out of the speakers. Listening to them I can remember the smells, the laughs and the endless coughing fits that came with your misled youth.
The new album, Vile Breed, released on April 20th (of course) shows the bands progression both in their musicianship and production, whereas Sinister Grip captured a bands practice session in their cloud covered space, the new LP sounds like they wanted to go a bit more professional with it while still filling the air with the pungent weed smoke.
The first track, “Desolation,” kicks the session off with a groove laden guitar intro, sprinkled in with some death metal influenced noodling from Kevin before launching into their trademark slammy riffs that back Jesse’s tirades up. Tons of mosh riffs cover the final half of the track before it closes out, ensuring the crowd never has a moment of safety.
The reprieve is short lived however as the subsequent tracks “Till I Die” and “Spiral” come jam packed with thunderous mosh riffs. While “Till I Die” is the more explosive of the two, kicking off with some mountainous death metal riffs to blow out the speakers and keeping that sound throughout the track.
“Spiral” takes its time with more dissonant riffs in the opening, building up the rage before kicking into a higher gear at the halfway point. The slow, rising guitarwork from Kevin and Eddie are indicative of this as they mellow the vibe a bit but allow Jesse’s tortured vocals to tower over the mix, once again letting out all his frustrations to the world. When the moment is right “Spiral” jumps ahead a few paces and we’re back to moshing the room around, there’s even a couple brief two step moments to keep the movements dynamic on the floor.
Towards the end of the album, the band launches into a re-recording of one of their best songs off Sinister Grip, “Time Lord,” which is also one of my favorites they’ve ever recorded. I always thought everything about it was perfect before and never needed to be touched up but Cannabis Crypt proved me wrong and showed they can not only play it better but make it sound even better.
With the heightened production the speedy riffs of the opening blast your ear drums even harder, Jesse sounds even more pissed off and the drum and bass bridge section leading into one of the evilest mosh parts I’ve ever heard goes even harder. “Beating you out of existence/ Beating you out of time/ Time lord!” isn’t just one of Jesse’s best lyrics, it’s a mosh call and one that you must heed if you want to survive in their pits.
The last two tracks — “Misery Spawn” and “The Pits of Despair” — cap the whole affair off fittingly with thunderous drums and destructive breakdowns. The drumming in particular on “Misery Spawn” might be the tightest on the entire record jumping from steady fills to kick out the grooves to the speedy double bass that leads into the ending. With Kevin handling the drums on the record he certainly outdid himself and showed just how much hard work and dedication he had in making this record.
As stated before, Vile Breed captures Cannabis Crypt in their element but with an elevated production and even more focused attacks. They still wanna make music for the kids who like to vibe out to some destructive death metal playing in the background while their eyes turn red and the weed fires up their brain synapses.
If you thought they were tight before then the new production and songwriting shows them even tighter and more chaotic than anything they’ve dropped before.
Get It
- Bandcamp (digital)
Tagged: cannabis crypt
