Crypta : "Shades of Sorrow"

The second album from this band that crawled from the ashes of Nervosa. The vocalist/ bassist and drummer return for this album after a line up change that finds new guitarists joining the fold. Sure the novelty here is an all female death metal band. I am not going to judge this album by is this good for girls , but measuring it against all death metal. What they have going for them is Augustos Lopes knows how to dial in a guitar tone. The second song has more of a thrashing feel than death metal. As far as death metal goes in terms of heaviness they are about middle of the road. The production on the guitar seems to be the focal point as the drums did not get as much love in the mix and could use more bass than the pitter patter the double bass is giving, or it could be she does not hit them that hard, which is what it sounds like when it comes to the blast beats. 

The songwriting compensates for any production flaws at least on the first two songs. Things slow to more of a King Diamond tempo going into "the Outsider" and might have been better served circling that graveyard as the attempts at speed here do not fly as well. At times their hybrid style reminds me of Cradle of Filth is Dani and company scrapped the keyboards. To the benefit of these gals it means they are playing a dark enough style of riffing for my tastes. If you are into guitar solos , you might dig what they throw down, I do not give a shit either way about them. There is more sweeping guitar antics to "Stronghold" but the over all songwriting feel, makes me think they are dialing in a formula. Not bas, but not the most inspired moment we have heard so far. I like the gallop it builds into , but the rule around here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make. 

There is however more nuance to the guitar playing on this album. It can even be heard when they go for the throat with more aggression on a song like "the Other Side of Anger". By the time we get to " Trail of Traitors" things are beginning to sound the same aside from the slight Morbid Angel feel here. Lots of riffing twists and turns but nothing that hooks me in. "Lullabye For the Forsaken" is more color by numbers generic metal with a darker edge in places. They chug along these more stagnant waters of holding a middle of the road status quo while playing music that should be about extremes. They are capable with their instruments, but not sure the direction they are going in is really paving a new path. The album closes with "Lord of Ruins' which touches on places that Goatwhore already does better ,so I am not sure what they point of this is. I will give this album a 7.5, as it sounds good and is well executed, sometimes providing some darker moments , but as a whole all too familar.It drops August 4th on Napalm Records.