Review of Cryogen - Despara

Despara is a tough call. It would be easy to just write a bio for Colorado’s Cryogen and try to pass it off as a review, and to be fair and honest, this four-track EP doesn’t suck in the least. There are acrobatic riffs, cool drum fills, and tastefully melodic solos at every turn, and reminds me a whole lot of how Thine Eyes Bleed started out, especially where the vocal delivery (not the exact tone) is concerned. The music falls in that weird spot of catchier thrash mixed with more straightforward death metal, but of the tightly-picked, precision staccato variety. “Mirror Entropy” throws in a few orchestral/classical elements into the mix with warbled, shaky results, and the bass drumming follows the riffs flawlessly on a few occasions during somewhat technical parts, without excessively overpowering the guitars. The technique still works well if it’s done right, so it works really well here, and adds to the rather emotionless overall vibe without flattening anything out under a wall of percussion.

Cryogen have added a few dynamic elements that further brings Anata or Mithras to mind, especially on the excellent “Divine Hallucination,” but they still could use a little more individuality integrated into their sound. These guys have a huge reserve of technical ability, and this EP shows some nice growth, but from a casual standpoint Despara wasn’t a task to sit through either. If they can come up with a new full-length as high in quality as closing labyrinth “Agnosis,” and show off a little more as far as who they are as songwriters, then it could be very interesting to hear the results in the hopefully not-so-distant future.

Release Details

Cryogen

Despara

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