CD review KRYPTOS ‘Afterburner’

(7/10) Kryptos is a forerunner when it comes to Heavy Metal hailing from India. The four-piece band from Bangalore has their roots in traditional Heavy Metal, spiced up with a solid portion of Thrash Metal.

The quartet can look back on a long history in Metal and it was last year when Kryptos celebrated its 20th anniversary. The guys take their time when it comes to new releases and this time it took three years that needed to be bridged by fans before welcoming the newest metallic strike from India.

‘Afterburner’ is Kryptos’ fifth longplayer and it’s a cool one. The album contains a lot of thingss a soundtrack for headbangers needs to carry. ‘Dead of Night’ is a song that’s exemplary for the entire album. Rough and a little hoarse vocals, some edges, furious solo parts and a hard working rhythm section, that’s Kryptos and that’s the base of this five minutes Heavy Metal storm.

The following ‘Red Dawn’ picks it up where the guys left off with ‘Dead of Night’ and it’s ‘Crimson Queen’ being another wrecking ball on ‘Afterburner’. Kryptos shifts gears with the faster ‘Cold Blood’ and the only little point of critique is the fact that the quartet stays very much in one pace. A more balanced mix of mid-tempo and uptempo tracks would have been an extra spice, making this delivery to an even more delicious one. Besides this little remark I can recommend ‘Afterburner’ to fans of traditional metal, a longplayer that’s neither polished nor carries frills. This album is pure Heavy Metal.

(7/10)

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