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BLASTEROID
Crypts Of Mind

Self-released (2024)
Rating: 7.5/10

Taking influence from the likes of Atheist, Pestilence, Vektor, Revocation and Nocturnus, Greek five-piece Blasteroid is the latest in a long line of bands to take the progressive death / thrash route. Abrasive, dissonant, jarring and aligned with the cosmos, this debut full-length outing will provide joy to anyone with a penchant for lands and denizens of otherworldly origin.

This is an album that has certainly taken its time to be born, after all, the quintet formed back in 2016 and have only released one EP – Universal Knowledge (2017) – in that time. With Crypts Of Mind you get blasted by nine tracks befitting of the celestial cover art as ‘The Final Parsec’ kicks things off. The track immediately prompts me to look up the meaning of “parsec”, the result being that it’s “…a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to 3.26 light years or 206, 265 astronomical units”, in case you didn’t know!

Musically, it’s the expected galactic whirlwind of wizardry that evokes images of subatomic particles, sizzling death rays, otherworldly vapours and colossal angular extraterrestrial ships. The vocals of Alexis Papatheofanous are throaty expressions that scrape along to the ever shifting axe, bass and drum work. Speedy segments then jolt into another groove as quizzical meandering touches upon Voivod-styled landscaping.

So many bands have churned out similar twisted metal compositions so even with its technicality, Crypts Of Mind is nothing new but I have to praise the Athens-based combo for crafting such an intriguing opus. The bass of Manos Skoularakos is plucky, the drums of Jim Makrinakis scramble the brain with their patterns and the guitar team of Chris Koutalelis and Spuros Pavlis construct what is seemingly a tangled yet robust net of complexity. Admittedly, each track feels a tad long but each one will take several listens before any access is provided.

The solos on offer are fantastic, working their way through which are mostly serrated labyrinths that are punctuated by briefly subtle and reflective interludes, as evidenced on ‘Of Nature Unknown’ and ‘Chaos God’ which for a majority of their duration exist as scathing and caustic sneers. It is comforting that the album offers more subdued elements, for example ‘Void Alchemy’ which comes as a welcoming respite after the coruscating assault of ‘Entwined’. ‘Void Alchemy’ leans more towards a progressive rock track with its bubbly bass and fluid lead work, hinting at Cynic before the return back to saw-toothed familiarity.

Mild instrumental ‘Binary Orbit’ leaks into ‘Reign Of Eris’, another jagged and pulverising exercise in brash and bold thrash. And that’s basically how the album finishes as the brace of ‘Mass Synthesis’ and the title track display more skittish behaviour; twisting leads squirming through a wiry maze of alien gas, percussion dribbling into the trickery of the bass fluidity. Again, Vektor springs to mind, not a bad thing but simple proof that such complex extreme metal is still being recycled. Even so, Crypts Of Mind is a rewarding jagged little pill if you like to get high on this kind of scrap metal clank from another world.

Neil Arnold

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