Hailing from India, Darkrypt lay down nasty death metal with authority on their debut full-length. The band actually finds a nice middle ground between wonderfully horrid Incantation gutter sounds and a cleaner Morbid Angel approach, and manage to create a bit of atmosphere in their extreme sounds as well. A song like “Chasm Of Death” (yup, it's death metal) goes mid-paced to much effect, closer “The Acceptor” gets even slower to even more effect, and “Dark Crypt” pays homage to all kinds of burbling DM bands of eras past, from Demilich to Immolation. 

And it's awesome, and the band plays on, this nine-track album never once wearing out its welcome or having anyone nervously eyeing the clock, even if the band's personality is still at this point basically a composite of many great death metal bands (at least it's great death metal bands). And the intro to killer death-metal chugster “Cryptic Illusions” gets all guitar-tech solo-y, in the best of ways, showing this band is capable of some surprising, and effective, variety; “Folie à Deux” continues that with progressive instrumentation and far-reaching sounds all over the place, creating a surprising, and refreshing, mid-album switch in sounds. I wouldn't mind hearing a slightly murkier production, as this sounds great, but almost a bit too great for the ugliness inherent in this sort of death metal. Otherwise, this one is solid, enjoyable DM, played with tons of heart and delivering a great atmosphere.