LIVE REVIEW: Cryptopsy and Atheist @ Slay, Glasgow

Tech metalheads, rejoice! Tonight, Glasgow’s Slay hosts a co-headlining event, featuring tech death metal icons, CRYPTOPSY, and progressive thrash/death metallers ATHEIST. While the former have made a dent in Glasgow on previous UK tours, this marks ATHEIST‘s debut appearance in Scotland and first UK show since 2010.

72 Legions @ Slay, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

First up is American death metallers 72 LEGIONS, taking over the stage very shortly after the doors open. Formed in 2022 with just two EPs and a split bearing their name, their interpretation of the sub-genre borrows from an array of varying death metal styles. They intertwine brutal and melodic death metal, along with some more hardcore-inflected observations. The variation of tempos sustains attention live and is a fine way to kickstart proceedings tonight as the venue fills up.

Rating: 7/10Almost Dead @ Slay, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

Next up is ALMOST DEAD, a thrash metal troupe hailing from the United States. Modern thrash metal spiced with hardcore veins is their preferred method of attack. There are plenty of hardcore-style breakdowns and vocalist Tony Rolandelli utilises vocals from this genre of music over conventional thrash shouts. Quite unusually, some of their tracks feature some atmospheric keyboard chords, making their music more memorable and contrasting against their heavier outbursts. The band’s stage presence is dynamic and bouncy, and they’re keen to get the audience to enjoy their set.

Rating: 7/10Atheist @ Slay, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

This incarnation of American tech metal weirdos ATHEIST is composed of vocalist Kelly Schaefer and a new lineup from 2023. While original drummer Steve Flynn officially still slaps the skins, he is replaced by Dylan Marks in the live realm. Tonight’s show focuses on their classic trilogy of pre-break up albums Piece of Time, Unquestionable Presence and Elements. No Truth is the opening shot, a bristling heavy thrash attack paired with infinite sophistication. Schaefer‘s stage energy is uncompromising; he grooves and moves throughout the whole set – particularly impressive for a man in his mid-fifties. He’s visually enthusiastic and happy to be performing live and that energy transcends to the fans. The rest of the lineup possesses exceptional talent, capable of deftly handling such insanely technical metal.

Understandably, Unquestionable Presence is the album with the most representation tonight. Cycling through progressive, thrash and death metal via jazz makes for some of the most impressive extreme metal recorded, to this date. The audience is privileged to hear the likes of Enthralled In Essence, Your Life’s Retribution, Unquestionable Presence, Mother Man and Brains from this innovative 1991 full-length. The debut album Piece Of Time also contributes to a significant portion of the setlist, with particular highlights being: I Deny, On They Slay and Unholy War. For songs from these two albums, the punters spawn consistent mosh pits that decimate the venue while crowd surfers keep security busy. Closing song Piece Of Time is a final celebration of oddball extreme prog thrash metal that leaves behind a spectacular show.

Rating: 10/10Cryptopsy @ Slay, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

Canada’s tech death metal titans CRYPTOPSY will need to have the best performance of the night to top ATHEIST‘s. And indeed, they begin their performance on a lighter foot, with new song In Abeyance from last year’s As Gomorrah Burns. The lack of familiarity with this song leaves the punters reserved and far too motionless for a death metal show. However, the next song is the beloved Graves Of The Fathers, which really ignites appetites and demands pugnacious pits and headbanging. CRYPTOPSY‘s visionary of sinister technical death metal is surely among the apex of the sub-genre and it’s clear to understand why classic albums including None So Vile and Blasphemy Made Flesh solidified them into the upper echelons of tech death.

Speaking of Blasphemy Made Flesh, this year is the band’s first album’s thirty-year anniversary. While one would expect a hefty representation of the album, if not the entire tracklisting, performed tonight, vocalist Matty McGachy says that we’ll be treated to a medley of it. Considering the album clocks in just shy of forty minutes and their set tonight is an hour long, this feels like a poor decision. Naturally, condensing an album into a scant ten minutes means so many passages of the best songs are scythed away. None So Vile classics like Crown Of Horns, Slit Your Guts, and the beloved Phobophile help restore mosh pits but they’re certainly less frantic than ATHEIST‘s.Cryptopsy @ Slay, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

That said, the musicianship of the band is an incredulous sight to behold, furious and intricate, especially mainman Flo Mounier on the drums. McGachy does an serviceable job as a death metal vocalist these days but still struggles to fill the shoes (both vocals and stage presence) of his predecessor, Lord Worm. The closing song of the night is Orgiastic Disembowelment, another classic to end on a higher note. But ATHEIST‘s performance still surpasses them.

Rating: 7/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here:
















































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Ihsahn: Pilgrimage To Oblivion

IHSAHN barely needs an introduction; over the past thirty years, he’s helped pioneer the second wave of black metal with EMPEROR, before striking out solo, retaining a black metal core but embracing everything from orchestras to jazz and prog. His influence is impossible to overstate, but he’s never rested on his laurels and instead, when we catch up over Zoom, he’s preparing to release his eighth solo album, one that, for the first time, is simply titled Ihsahn. One that, again for the first time, is in fact two separate albums under the same name; one symphonic, progressive black metal, and the other entirely orchestral.



“It’s been quite a few albums, over time,” he smiles when recalling that, on average, he’s released an album every two years since he was sixteen. Now though, there’s been a six year gap since Ámr, though he’s hardly rested on his laurels. “I did the two EPs, Telemark and Pharos that were part of a project; I wanted to take the extremes of the black metal elements of my catalogue and that aesthetic, and the Pharos EP was the opposite, with all my experimental songs.” Those, though not toured as intended, ended up having an impact on his next steps.

Once the two extremes were “out of [his] system,” ideas started to flow for his next body of work. “Having done all these deviations, in some sense, over the years, this time I wanted to lean on the core elements of what I’ve been doing,” he begins. In fact, drawing a straight line from his early career to now, black metal and its trappings have always been part of it. “With all my albums, I try to create a scenario where I have one foot on solid ground, something that I know, and I try to add something that brings me to the edge, to create the tension I need.”

To hear him tell it, “really, there’s nothing about this new album that’s innovative,” as it contains “the traditional black metal ensemble, traditional symphony orchestra setup, the storyline is a very Joseph Campbell style hero’s journey.” In reality, Ihsahn is a sprawling, epic undertaking that marries his extremity with DEVIN TOWNSEND-esque progressive moments, lush orchestras and a clear, driving ambition that makes IHSAHN’s own statements seem particularly contradictory to the music he’s created, not least in part because Ihsahn is very different sides of the same coin.

“It’s not like I took the metal version of this and then also wrote the orchestral version,” he begins, explaining that the entire album started life as a piano short score before being expanded on. “All the orchestral elements are in the metal record, it’s the same arrangement. There’s nothing in the orchestral arrangement that’s added or taken away.” A theme that he found emerging during its creation that he pursued is that of duality, with the metal side being the reflection of the orchestral versions. “I felt there could be more to it if you could present music in these two forms.”


He expands on this, singling out lead single Pilgrimage To Oblivion as an example. Opening with a clash of guitars and blastbeats with his acerbic howl, it’s a perfect example of black metal extremity. On the reverse of that, once removing all but the orchestra, solemn cellos instead introduce the piece. “It’s basically the same riff,” he explains, “but an entirely different interpretation and emotional expression of the same music.” The deeper into the creative process IHSAHN got, the more prominent the idea of duality became. He grins, “it’s not a new idea, but it’s still fascinating to work with.”

Naturally, the question of why he took until album eight to release a self-titled album comes up, though he’s quick to shut down any suggestion that it’s some kind of overarching statement about his music. “I found it really hard to find one title, given all the elements that went into this album, that was representative of everything,” he explains, “and secondly, I feel that it’s very representative of the core elements that have always been with me, so I felt now was as good a time as any.” Again it’s an understatement; from an outside perspective, Ihsahn certainly feels like a bold reaffirmation of its creator’s peerless, and fearless, creative spirit.

He’s reluctant to get too far into its complexity and difficulty, smiling instead that “music should be representative in and of itself; if a picture is amazing but the painter had a hard time during it, who cares? You can look at the Statue of David and you don’t need an explanation to know it’s amazing.” In fact, an emerging theme during our conversation is that while he pours as much of himself as he can into every album’s creation, it’s not for any external validation at all but his own restless creative drive.

When we ask what he’s most excited for fans to hear from the album, he replies simply “that entirely depends on what level of involvement people want.” He recalls his love of IRON MAIDEN and how looking at the artwork for the likes of Powerslave then hearing the music, the two matched and it made sense; there’s a hope that people see Ihsahn in a similar light. “I hope it’s like a big, impressive building. Some people might say, fuck that’s a big impressive building and walk past. It’s still a cool experience. Some people might want to go inside and hopefully I’ve managed to decorate the rooms nicely.”

He continues, “the way I talk about the complexities and layers, it might give the impression that this is hard to access in some way. But I don’t think this is any more or less accessible than anything else I’ve done.” His pushback against over-intellectualising something he earlier confessed to being a nerd over again echoes the duality of this self-titled undertaking. At once a sprawling, progressive, orchestral monolith of labyrinthine twists, turns and breathtaking depth, it’s also a piece that incorporates a surprising ease of accessibility, catchy melodies and, in its orchestral guise, almost meditative.

“It’s like with food or wine,” he smiles, “it’s very nice if you have someone to help guide the experience and tell you about the flavours. But if you think it tastes like shit it doesn’t matter!” A cavalier attitude, perhaps, but it’s no less true. “Music is subjective, I can’t tell you you’re not feeling something even if I think the music is crap,” he laughs. Unsurprisingly, Ihsahn is anything but; his drive to create something new out of old ingredients has borne remarkable fruit, a 100-minute sprawl of progressive metal and symphony orchestras, that’s a fascinating look into the mind of its creator, and begs the question of where he could possibly go next. Wherever it is, it’s sure to be unmistakably IHSAHN.

Ihsahn is out now via Candlelight Records.

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TRIVIUM FRONTMAN MATT HEAFY SHARES SINGLE-CAM LIVE FOOTAGE OF "LIKE CALLISTO TO A STAR IN HEAVEN"

Trivium frontman Matt Heafy has shared a new video to his official YouTube channel. The clip features live footage of "Like Callisto To A Star In Heaven" performed at an undisclosed location on tour.




"We are thrilled to announce that in 2025 we present to you The Poisoned Ascendancy UK Tour, alongside our brothers in Trivium. Both bands will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut albums by playing them in full. Get excited people, it's gonna be special and we can't wait to celebrate with you all."

Trivium, meanwhile, posted the following message:

"Bullet for My Valentine’s The Poison and Trivium’s Ascendancy are two records whose influence can be heard to this day - in the DNA of modern metal. It’s incredible to think of the impact the albums had when they came out in 2005. They were both like bolts of lightning. Both bands grew up independently of each other in different countries and separately from any movement or scene but both shared a common love of melodic heavy metal at the core; and both had similar meteoric rises right out of the gate. Trivium and BFMV were in such whirlwinds when our respective albums came out that we each never truly got to play together or sit back and celebrate during the maelstrom of constant touring, recording and globetrotting. But that’s what this anniversary tour is. It’s a celebration by the bands to the fans of an important era, and most importantly it’s an invitation to fans come and have an epic night with us and sing and rage and celebrate the awesome power of the music. Tickets on-sale next Friday, March 1."