Dressed in leather jackets and biker shoes and carrying the old school flag since 1998, Kryptos is one of the oldest and no doubt one of the best bands in the Indian metal scene. If someone is leading the great heavy metal dream in our country, it’s them. Having released three admirable and worthy studio albums through various established international labels and having toured Europe, these troopers play old school heavy metal in the most innovative form. Their music is laden with traditional heavy metal melodies and old school thrash riffs from the 80’s, yet it still catches up with the modern times.
Kryptos is our Artist of the Month for the month of June; so we conclude the month by looking at the amazing work that the band has done so far:
1. Spiral Ascent (2004)
Released in 2004, Kryptos’ debut album is no doubt a pretty noble effort which brought the death metal culture to the country and inspired many young musicians to form a band and get involved in expanding the scene. It features the early line-up of Kryptos, which consisted of Ganesh Krishnaswamy (Bevar Sea, Witchgoat) on vocals and bass and Akshay Patel on guitars along with Nolan Lewis on guitars and Ryan Colaco drums. The album offers a progressive and melodic wave of traditional heavy metal with songs like ‘Altered Destinies’, ‘Clandestine Elements’ and ‘Satyr Like Face’, which feature some brilliant melodies and catchy thrash riffs put together flawlessly to get fine crafted songs. A lot of the songs on the album contain long instrumental sections, which give the album a sort of gloomy and atmospheric touch. For instance, ‘Forgotten Land Of Ice’, ‘In Twilight’s Grace’ and ‘Descension’ are somewhat murky tracks which set an ominous ambient to the album. Ganesh has done a great job with vocals and recently seeing him live with Kryptos really brought the old “Spiral Ascent” days back. The bass and drums lines have been laid pretty nicely to grace the guitar melodies. Definitely an album one must check out!
Recommended Tracks: Altered Destinies, Descension, Satyr Like Face
2. The Ark Of Gemini (2006)
This is the album where Nolan takes over the vocal duties and Kryptos attains a line-up that we currently see, i.e. Nolan Lewis on vocals and guitars, Rohit Chaturvedi on guitars, Jayawant Tewari on bass and Ryan Colaco on drums. With ‘The Ark Of Gemini’, the band lost the ambient character from their songs to a certain degree and the album saw an increase in the melodic and thrashy elements. With songs like ‘Order Of The DNA’, ‘Vulcan’, ‘Tower Of Illusions’ and ‘Liquid Grave’, they developed their own unique sound which defines them today, which I believe is the catch for any band. The construction of the songs is rather flawless and the tracks flow magnificently through thrashy sections, which often carry a very melodious and catchy essence. The highlight on the album would be the harmonized guitar melodies by the guitar duo, which make the guitar work on the album pretty epic altogether. We can also witness an increase in the number of solos; Rohit no doubt has done a fantastic work with them. Nolan’s harsh vocals certainly add to the aggressive nature of the album, and have been really good.
Recommended Tracks: Order Of The DNA, The Revenant, Tower Of Illusions, Liquid Grave, Sphere VII, Vulcan
3. The Coils Of Apollyon (2012)
This album was released after a long gap of six years but offers us some of the best works of the band. Starting with the brilliant crowd favourite ‘The Mask Of Anubis’, the album flows through nine, rather splendidly tailored tracks. The progressions have been put together quite flawlessly making the songs pretty catchy and likeable. The number of tempo changes and variations has also increased but the songs still remain fairly simple and straightforward. Then there are those melodies in the songs ‘Serpent Mage’, ‘The Mask Of Anubis’, ‘Nexus Legion’ and ‘Visions Of Dis’, which make them anthems, rather than good metal songs. The album was released in April 2012 via Iron Fist Records before being released through AFM Records, Germany in October 2012, which gave it worldwide recognition. The album artwork is done by the legendary Mark Riddick, who has worked with the likes of Arsis, The Black Dahlia Murder, Devourment, Dethklok, etc.
Recommended Songs: The Mask Of Anubis, The Coils Of Apollyon, Serpent Mage, Nexus Legion, Starfall, Visions Of Dis.
