"As Gomorrah Burns," Death Metal Royalty Cryptopsy Return (Interview)

With an 11-year gap between full-length albums, French Canadian technical death metal band Cryptopsy are bursting with relentless ferocity on their eighth full-length album As Gomorrah Burns. On As Gomorrah Burns—the band’s first for Nuclear Blast—Cryptopsy have managed to balance their sound between a good mix of the band’s early era and their current modern/contemporary aesthetic.

Since their 1992 formation, the Quebecers have created a worthy but somewhat unbalanced oeuvre. The band’s first two albums—1994’s Blasphemy Made Flesh and 1996’s None So Vile—are deemed absolute death metal classics.

Featuring founding member/drummer Flo Mounier, guitarist Christian Donaldson, vocalist Matt McGachy, and bassist Olivier “Oli” Pinard, Cryptopsy have been plowing their path of destruction for 30-plus years. During a recent Zoom chat, Mounier spoke with writer Kelley Simms about the band’s early days, its enduring legacy, its new album, and more.

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What was it like to be involved in the burgeoning death metal scene of early ’90s? Did you feel isolated in Montreal, and were you already aware of the Floridian or Scandinavian scene?

The only reason we'd be kind of isolated is that it took a little bit for people to realize that there was an actual huge scene out here in Quebec. We were aware of all the things that were going on. We had a few local record stores that specified in metal, so we had all the imports coming in and all the Norwegian stuff, the Swedish stuff, the Florida stuff, the Bay Area. You name it, we had it all. We were pretty in tune to what was going on, for sure.

Although As Gomorrah Burns is your first full-length in many years, you did release two EPs and two compilations in between your 2011 self-titled album and now. What was the thinking process for those releases compared to finally releasing this full-length album?

We just decided to do EPs to concentrate on four songs per release, just to make it quick, in-your-face, and leaving people wanting more. The whole point of the EPs is a trilogy, so there will be another one coming out. We thought we'd release them a lot sooner than we did. 

People's attention span has changed drastically over the last decade, if not a little bit more. So sometimes having a full-length with too many songs is, in my opinion, a little bit futile. Because chances are, when we were younger, we'd listen to a full album from beginning to end and read all the lyrics and read all the thank you lists and all that stuff. It seems that people don't do that anymore. So, we're just trying to go with what we thought was going to represent Cryptopsy very quick, very well, with new sounds and new ideas and stuff. It wasn't a huge thought process. It's just something that we wanted to try.

The album was crafted over two years during the pandemic, and the initial sessions took place in a cabin in the forests of Quebec. How did that affect the writing process as far as mood or atmosphere?

It's hard to say exactly how it did, but we just wanted to be the four guys, and nothing really affected us around us, just to see what we could do. It was the initial writing that started there, and then we finished it off with Chris at his studio. 

It's just something that we tried, and I think this whole pandemic thing was coming on, so we were getting wind of it, and we were talking about it throughout the few days that we were there. (It was) this feeling of the unknown of what's going on, this whole crap thing, maybe influenced it. It's a little bit darker for Cryptopsy. It's sort of more emotional. So, it might have something to do with it. We'll see on the next writings, I guess.

I think the record has a good mix of early era Cryptopsy with a modern/contemporary  feel. Once again, the production was handled by bandmate Chris Donaldson. What were you going for sound-wise with this album?

We just want things to come out nice and audible, but having that meanness to it. And there's a lot of energy in the Cryptopsy music from the guitars, from the vocals, from the bass lines, and from the drums. Chris wants to make it as clear as possible, but loud as well. And really aggressive, at the same time keeping it a little bit more organic with natural sounds, natural snare sounds, not over edited. I guess you're right in saying that, there is definitely vibes of older stuff mixed in with the new stuff. And I think that's the right path right now for Cryptopsy.

Lyrically and conceptually, I think there's a dichotomy between the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah but with relatable stories based on the present day.

Matt's the one who wrote everything. I think he wanted to relate ancient history to modern times. Because as much as we think we've evolved and learned from our past, it seems that we tend to make the same mistakes over and over and over again. With the internet and stuff like that, you can compare it to a whole bunch of different things from the past, biblical things. 

But it totally relates to what's happening right now. You just look at fires everywhere and look at the wars going on; we just don't learn from our mistakes, man. There's a very few that make a lot of money from creating this turmoil and destruction and division. And they have the money, so they'll keep on doing it. We don't learn; we just follow like a bunch of aimless sheep.

Of course, Matt's vocals are a bit more guttural compared to original vocalist Lord Worm’s on Cryptopsy’s earlier albums. But I think it's been a good match for these later-era Cryptopsy albums.  

Yeah, I think Matt's been doing a lot of work on different techniques to make things easier for some more gutturals. He doesn't cup the mic at all; he pulls off stuff that sounds just amazing. He's very powerful. He's got a very powerful voice, so that helps a lot. He's got a lot of control as well. I let him go because I know it's going to be great. And I think he did an amazing job on this album. And as guttural as it is, there's actual articulation. As I’m listening to him sing, I can sing along to this. I know what he's saying. It's pretty impressive. He's just been a trooper, a hard worker, and he always makes it sound good and live. He's a beast. He impresses a lot of people.

As a drummer myself, your drumming has always been impressive and monstrous. What were you wanting to achieve on these tracks, what did you focus on most? Do you come up with patterns based on the riffs or vice-versa?

I usually base myself on the riff. And thank you for the props! I'll try to play to the riff, and then I'll see what fits better. And with Cryptopsy, usually if there's one riff, there'll probably be, like, five different beats for that single riff. It has to do with the song’s structure. It has to be musical, and I really want it to be musical. So I want to focus on the groove. I want to focus on appropriate fill transitions for the next parts. If a beat fits the riff, well then I'll probably go with it. But sometimes I'll do the opposite and do something that doesn't fit at all, just to create that tension. But most of the time it would be a riff-oriented beat kind of thing.

The album cover art from Paulo Girardi is absolutely amazing. You can spot his style from a mile away! Did you have to give him much direction for this piece?

It was Matt that communicated with him, and he had the title, and he had the concept of what it was. And it's just a city and people burning and what happens is that the old Cryptopsy Whisper Supremacy era bat comes out (with) a little bit more detail, a little bit more refined. It was just clever. It came out really nice. And I do like the different color schemes because it's very playable for merch and backdrops and all that stuff. His artwork is quite impressive. We were happy with the final result.

You actually created the original band logo. Are you heavily involved with the image and the look of the band's merch?

I am, but we usually have different artists throw ideas at us, and sometimes we'll throw concepts at them as well. It surely has grown over the years because we've had some horrible merch in the past and we're trying to avoid that for the present and the future. So, the logo fits pretty well with a bunch of different things. My involvement is basically at this point throwing ideas or vetoing things. There's some great artwork. So, other than the conceptual side with that, Matt had to deal with the album cover, and the rest is pretty much artists throwing (around) ideas.

With 30-plus years of activity, what will the band be focusing on for the rest of this year and into next year, including touring plans?

We have the Mexico Metal Fest coming up in mid-November. It's just one off, a big festival with some big names on it. Then right after we come back from that we're going to hit Asia, Dubai, China, Japan, Vietnam, all that kinds of stuff. Then, of course, we take a little break for the holidays. Then we're trying to get something at the end of February into March in Europe. We haven't confirmed it yet, but it could be a European tour. Then afterwards, in May, we have the Maryland DeathFest, and we're going to book a tour around that because it's going to mark the 30 years of Blasphemy Made Flesh. We're going to do a Blasphemy Made Flesh set entirely for that festival and then book a tour in the States around that. And then hopefully we hit as many European festivals over the summer as possible. That's the plan for now.

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As Gomorrah Burns was released on September 8 via Nuclear Blast.