ENCOMIUM 2012: Cryptopsy

Canada's brutal death metal technicians are about to return with their 7th full-length album called "Cryptopsy" this September. I've asked Flo Mounier to share with us all the latest news, line-up changes and plans for the near future. You've been warned, the white worms have returned!!!

Hi Flo! Your new album, modestly titled "Cryptopsy", is about to be released 11th of September. It was definitely worth waiting 4 years for this masterpiece as those 2 songs online fragmentally display a return to the "Whisper Supremacy" era. Was it a conscious decision, to write/make the new album this way or it was mainly due to Jon Levasseur's return?

- Well, Jon coming back does not hurt I'll say that, because he and I wrote most of CRYPTOPSY's albums in the past. So our chemistry mixed with Chris and Matt really give it an authentic CRYPTOPSY sound.

Our intensions were to have fun and write a killer album and that's what we tried to do. Just to clear things up though the album will be sent to preorder participants the week of September 11th, but street dates are later.

I am extremely happy to see Jon in the band again. What he did in the past 8-9 years? Did he play anywhere else? Also tell the story of his return.

- No he basically worked and told me that he almost gave up the guitar entirely (what a shame that would have been). I called him up towards the end of 2010 and left him a message that I wanted to talk to him. 3 months later he called me back and we had a long discussion, he had been playing hard over the 3 months passed and had a lot of ideas. We met up and had a jam session that was really cool. Then it just took off and we started writing.

You had a couple of line-up changes the past years. Why Alex Auburn left the band in 2009 and then Éric Langlois (your long-time bass player) as well in 2011? Were their departures due to personal or musical disagreements?

- Well personal reasons tend to effect musical reasons, so yeah both, lol… It's hard to try to devote your life in this musical style, people come and go. If band members aren't all on the same page it makes things difficult for the band's evolution. That's pretty the explanation, different pages.

Your previous release, "The Unspoken King" in 2008, was pretty experimental or I would say the most unordinary record in the history of CRYPTOPSY. It had a lot of modern influences, like the Deathcore/Metalcore feelings for example. That album was the debut for vocalist Matt McGachy & guitarist Chris Donaldson and for the first time you also had a keyboard-player in the band, namely Maggie Durand. Was that album musically become so unusual because of the new members or it was just a natural progress for CRYPTOPSY?

- I think that it wasn't the new members so much as it was the new compositional chemistry between Alex and I.

I had never written an album with just Alex and that was different therefore the songs were different. Just to assure you though we never heard of Deathcore or Metalcore at the time, so if people think that's what it sounded like then it's very self-interpretive.

Your new bass player is Olivier Pinard. He also plays in NEURAXIS and VENGEFUL. What else should we know about him? How he appeared to be the new bass player for CRYPTOPSY?

- Well as soon as we suggested to Chris that we needed a bass player he mentioned Oli. Chris had recorded him before and really liked his playing. Jon went to visit him and show him some stuff and that was it.

Mircea Gabriel Eftemie did the cover artwork for "Cryptopsy", which is simply awesome. It looks like a coat of arms or an emblem. Whose idea was it and what symbolizes this cover for you?

- That's pretty much what I wanted to see a coat of arms. I gave Mircea a vague description and he just nailed it! It represents passed, present and future I suppose.

As with your previous album the new one was recorded at Garage Studio again. And as I see it was mainly self-produced, as the drums where recorded at your own studio, while Chris did the rest of the job (producing, engineering & mixing it). How was to work at Garage Studio this time?

- The studio process for this album was great! It was really easy to track the songs because everybody was very prepared. We had finished writing for the album early December 2011 and started tracking late February 2012. What took the most time was mixing and mastering. We went back and forth to make sure that everyone was pleased and finally got a really good end result. It's always comfortable recording in familiar environments, and that's exactly what we did.

Will you prepare a video clip for any of the new songs? If so, tell us which one it will be. By the way, don't you plan to make a new DVD?

For the fall of this year no European tour dates are scheduled for CRYPTOPSY. Can we expect an extensive one for 2013? Please tell us more about your concert/tour plans for the near future.

- For now we are waiting for proper tour offers. Europe is in the works for early 2013, but no dates have yet been confirmed.

In 2011 you joined a special project called NADER SADEK. A quite obscure & surrealistic Death Metal formation to be honest. Can we expect a continuation of the great "In the flesh" debut shortly?

- Nader, Rune and I are working on something new. I'm not sure when an album will be done, but we are definitely working on it. There will be surprises in the line-up and so far the songs are really interesting. Let's see what the future holds.

You also become a session live drummer for the Canadian Thrash Metal pioneers ANNIHILATOR. How it happened? Tell us more about this alliance.

- A friend of mine (Redge, Pearl Canada) contacted me 'cause Jeff had asked him if he knew any drummers that could fill the spot. He suggested me and I tried out. It was a cool personal challenge for me to do a few shows with them, but at one point I got too busy with CRYPTOPSY so I had to step back. It was fun working with the boys even though some of the music isn't necessarily my cup of tea.

Speak us a little bit about the series of clinics you are doing for Roland. You are using SPD 20 for quite a while now. Tell us your impressions about this product.

- The new series of clinics for Roland is actually for the new TD 30, the HD of electronic drums!!! Seriously this machine is awesome, so many possibilities, so much dynamic range, just crazy.

Darren, the Canada representative has been a good friend for a while now and he had asked me 5 years ago to do the clinic run for the (then) new TD 20, it went really well, so he asked me to do the same kinda clinic run for the brand new TD 30. Tons of fun!!!

About 6 years ago you've released an instructional drumming DVD called "Extreme Metal Drumming 101". That 2 DVD set was simply awesome! Do you plan to release something similar soon?

- I do have lots of ideas for a new DVD and I'm sure I will be doing a new one in the near future, just gotta find the time and then simply dive into it.

In 2009 you've played in Ukraine at Metal Heads' Mission Festival. How did you like it? How do you remember that show? What are your memories about Ukraine?

We enjoyed that time very much, it was such a cool setting and people were very pumped. I remember driving a lot in Ukraine!! lol. But really beautiful when we got to the beach. It was a different world for us but everyone was so cool that it was easy to fit right in.