Cryptborn - Born From the Grave

CRYPTBORN - Born From the Grave(DETEST Records - 7"EP 2012)

Cryptborn are back! Hell, I have been waiting for something new from this Finnish combo and it did feel like a long time since they’ve released the debut. But as soon as I got the chance I didn’t hesitate to buy this EP. And that’s not only due to the fact that Detest Records never released a shitty stuff, but mainly because Cryptborn’s previous release, killer “In the Grasp of the Starving Dead” MLP, provided an exceptional listening experience and I really wanted to hear something more from this Finnish squadron of death. I know that EP may not be enough to satisfy the hunger, but at least “Born from the Grave” (which has been unleashed on two different colours of the vinyl, mine is black) at least will make the awakening for the full length album slightly shorter.

As you may expect, this EP consists of two tracks only, but they’re both real death metal classics, which are shredding and killing within seconds; I must say that when I listen to them I think they’re even superior to the stuff, which Cryptborn has putted on “In the Grasp of the Starving Dead” – even if there was absolutely nothing wrong with this MCD. But the feeling, when I listen to the track called “Born from the Grave” is just incredibly intense. I mean every time I hear its opening theme, with its infectious melody I just start to bang my head immediately and roar in frenzy. This is truly excellent piece! Definitely Cryptborn is more melodic in it, than they had been on “In the Grasp of the Starving Dead”, but they kept this doomy death metal style from the previous material intact. The tempo is rather slow in this song, what sounds like something really creepy was just crawling towards you, coming out of the catacombs of rotten death in order to turn you into blood and meat stew. Oh, how amazing the atmosphere in this song is, you won’t believe, but it’s truly eerie and as the whole I think “Born from the Grave” belongs to my favourite songs of the past two, three years, speaking not just of the old school Swedish death metal, but metal in general. Meanwhile though it’s time to swap the side and “Pleasing Rotten Image” is on the B side. I think I can say that this song is very similar to the stuff from “In the Grasp of the Starving Dead”, really, what means again doomy death metal with the Swedish sound and with a lot of similarities to the early and recent Grave albums. But again Cryptborn creates truly thrilling atmosphere and again the song is extremely brutal and dense, even despite the fact that the tempo is so slow in it, with only one part, when it slightly fastens and gets even more intense. Ha, I think it actually makes it even heavier, especially when comparing it to many other old sounding death metal bands of nowadays. Oh, “Pleasing Rotten Image” also has slightly more melodic theme somewhere in the middle, so again this song just have everything what I would expect from Cryptborn.

After listening to “Born from the Grave” EP several times this morning I must say that this is yet another killer 7”, which I had luck to purchase in the past months – and yet another from Detest Records, what must be underlined, as this label puts out only killer releases. I thought it couldn’t get any better than “Crawling Morbidity” from Entrapment for instance, but here we go - an awesome slab of obscure death metal, which sounds incredibly Swedish, even though it came from the Finnish band, and incredibly old school, even though it was recorded in 2012. I definitely recommend it to every maniac of this sort of death metal; get it before you regret that you missed your chance!

Final rate: 90/100