Fresh off crushing cities across North America during their headline run on this year’s Decibel Magazine Tour, Cryptopsy remain insatiable as ever. The Montreal legends’ latest album, An Insatiable Violence, received their second nomination for Best Metal/Hard Music Album at this year’s JUNO Awards, a category they won two years ago. Now, ahead of their summer European headline tour, they are revealing a freakish surprise that shows once more why they are the most vile band in death metal.
Today, Cryptopsy are announcing that they are performing later this summer at Billy Strings’ annual Ionia Freak Fair. The band will headline The Pyramid Scheme Pinball & Metal Tent on Saturday, August 29. The news arrives almost a year since they collaborated with the Grammy Award-winning bluegrass star on “Blasphemy Made Fresh”.
“We’re incredibly grateful and honored to be part of something as unique as the Ionia Freak Fair”, Cryptopsy says. “Music has always been about breaking boundaries. We can’t wait to bring something heavy to this year’s festival. Who knows, maybe Billy will even stop by for a song…”
Cryptopsy at 2026 Ionia Freak Fair
Saturday, August 29 @ The Pyramid Scheme [SOLD OUT]
Get tickets for Cryptopsy’s 2026 European Headline Tour: http://lnk.to/CRYPTOPSY-EUROPESUMMER26
July 25 – Steenwijk, NL @ Stonehenge Festival
July 26 – Cham, DE @ LA
July 28 – Brasov, RO @ Rockstadt Extreme Fest
July 29 – Kosice, SK @ Collosseum
July 30 – Kraków, PL @ Hype Park
July 31 – Löbnitz, DE @ Full Rewind
August 1 – Dortmund, DE @ Dortmund Deathfest
August 2 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk
August 3 – Cardiff, UK @ The Globe
August 5 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans
August 6 – Derby, UK @ Bloodstock Open Air
August 7 – Helsinki, FI @ Helsinki Metal Fest
August 8 – Jaromer, CZ @ Brutal Assault
August 9 – Vagos, PT @ Vagos Metal Fest
August 12 – Trier, DE @ The Forum
August 13 – Dinkelsbühl, DE @ Summer Breeze
August 14 – Colmar, FR @ Spirit In Black Festival
August 15 – Kortrijk, BE @ DVG Club
August 16 – Carhaix, FR @ Motocultor
August 18 – Martigny, CH @ Sunset Bar
August 19 – Pinarella Di Cervia, IT @ Rockplanet
August 20 – Spital Am Semmering, AT @ Kaltenbach Open Air
August 21 – Litomerice, CZ @ Death Coffee Party
Listen to “Blasphemy Made Fresh” on the Season of Mist YouTube channel:
An Insatiable Violence, None So Vile and other albums from Cryptopsy’s fearsome discography are now available through Season of Mist
Order: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/cryptopsyall
Stream: https://orcd.co/cryptopsyaninsatiableviolence
More than 30 years into their storied career, Montreal death metal innovators Cryptopsy return with their ninth studio album, An Insatiable Violence, set for release on June 20, 2025 on Season of Mist.
Revered in extreme metal circles for such groundbreaking classics as 1994’s Blasphemy Made Flesh and the 1996 magnum opus None So Vile, Cryptopsy find yet another gear on An Insatiable Violence, which further solidifies the band’s place in the upper echelon of death metal. Coming out of the pandemic, the band dedicated themselves to staying on top of their game more than ever before, with the intention of consistently putting out a new record every two years. That started with 2023’s acclaimed As Gomorrah Burns, and continues 21 months later with An Insatiable Violence.
“We had to write the majority of An Insatiable Violence while on the Death to All tour, which was something we’d never done before”, vocalist Matt McGachy says. “Flo [Mounier, drums] and Chris [Donaldson, guitar] really put their hats on. It was a feat”.
“Ever since COVID our focus is clearer, a lot of work gets done faster, and we push each other to get it done.”, Mounier says.
In addition to featuring some of the fastest passages Cryptopsy has ever recorded – keen listeners will even hear the odd gravity blast from Mounier, a rarity from the virtuoso drummer – the controlled chaos of their signature sound is offset by well-timed passages that ease off the gas pedal enough to allow listeners to come up for some air. That dynamic rage on An Insatiable Violence in turn makes the more aggressive moments hit even harder, which is immediately noticeable on the harrowing “Until There’s Nothing Left” and the chugging closing track “Malicious Needs”. Olivier Pinard anchors “Fools Last Acclaim” with stunning authority (keeping pace with Mounier is an unenviable task) while Donaldson offsets gnarly, atonal riffs with melodic passages throughout the record. “It’s a continuation of As Gomorrah Burns,” McGachy says, “We really wanted to make a groovy record, and we think we’ve done it.”
It seems as though nothing is scarier than real life right now, and An Insatiable Violenceis a commentary on today’s society as though filtered through the transgressive, countercultural perspectives of J.G. Ballard and David Cronenberg.
“It all came to me in a dream in August 2023,” elaborates McGachy. “I woke up, I took my phone, and I wrote down the title of the record. It’s about a person that wakes up every day and fixes a machine. Tinkers with it, tries to make it better all day long, sweating in the sun, and then at night, they strap themself into this machine and the machine tortures them, and they love it. Then they wake up the next day and fix it again to make it more efficient, to keep harnessing it, and then just keep doing it over and over again.
While fantastically twisted, An Insatiable Violence mirrors our toxic relationship with social media. “We’re continuously trying to feed this algorithm of the machine while it’s totally tearing us apart socially and psychologically”, McGachy continues. “’The Nimis Adoration’ is about mukbang, these Korean people that eat too much food on the Internet. Piles and piles of food. A poor girl died on a live cam”.
At the center of the album is the mind-boggling percussion skill of Mounier, arguably the most imposing Canadian drummer not named Peart, who dominates such standout tracks as “Dead Eyes Replete”, “Fools Last Acclaim”, and “Embrace the Nihility”. “I look at Flo as an Olympic athlete,” says McGachy. “I want to push this guy to go a lot faster than Cryptopsy’s previous releases. We have so much more to give, and I wanted just drain it all out of him while he’s still at the top of his game, because he is. He’s crushing.”
“I mix up a lot of a physical activity, like resistance training into the drumming,” Mounier says. “I recently developed new techniques that make it easier to go even faster, so I tried to push that on this album. My focus is now more on dynamics and the touch of the snare, a certain snap of the snare, a rim shot on the snare, the toms, a light touch or a hard touch. Live, I can really let go, you know, give the sound guy a hard time,” he adds with a laugh.
For McGachy, who has always boasted a powerful, guttural death growl, the rigors of touring have enabled him to evolve as a vocalist, and he turns in a revelatory performance on An Insatiable Violence. In addition to ear-scraping screams that rival George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher, McGachy unleashes the deepest, filthiest death growls of his career. “Gomorrah was the first album that I recorded with my full false chord scream, which is something that I’d only just touched on The Book of Suffering: Tome II in little sections,” he says. “We did at least 140 shows since Gomorrah. I exclusively did my false chords during all the songs that we performed on None So Vile and Blasphemy Made Flesh. And then, when we did go into the studio for An Insatiable Violence, Chris would be like, ‘Deeper, you must go deeper!’”
Another fearsome vocalist from Cryptopsy’s lore pops back into the booth on An Insatiable Violence. “When we were recording the vocals for ‘Embrace the Nihility’, Chris had the idea of ending the song with the same vocal pattern as the end of ‘…and Then It Passes’”, McGachy remembers. “We figured if we were going to rip ourselves off, then we may as well get the real thing. We were honored that Mike DiSalvo accepted. We are all huge fans of Cryptopsy’s DiSalvo era. His vocals on this album are an ultra Easter egg for our fans”.
In addition to the effusive praise As Gomorrah Burns received from within the metal scene, the 2023 album achieved a first for Cryptopsy: earning them their first ever JUNO Award in 2024 for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year. “We had little-to-no expectations of winning” says McGachy. ”We didn’t even go to the ceremonies because we were on tour in Europe with Atheist. On the day we found out that we won, we had a crazy 18-hour drive from Derby to Germany, plus a ferry ride. But we still partied for 48 hours. Flo bought an expensive bottle of champagne”.
Cryptopsy recognize that not every death metal band sticks around long enough to win a Canadian Grammy 30 years into their career. The cover art for An Insatiable Violence was created by the late, great vocalist Martin Lacroix. “The album artwork has got to be one of the most important things to us!”, the band says. “Martin Lacroix was one of our vocalists, one of our great friends and one of the nicest people that anyone could have the privilege to meet. We really wish he was here with us to share this moment. His perfect smile would say it all! Rest in peace brother”.
With Cryptopsy’s latest career renaissance showing no signs of slowing down, the recent accolades are only the beginning. An Insatiable Violence reaches a new peak in a career loaded with them.
Lineup
Flo Mounier – Drums
Matt McGachy – Vocals
Christian Donaldson – Guitar
Oli Pinard – Bass
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