CRYPTORIUM - Through the Bowels of Ceaseless Dissonance

Sweden… When talking about death metal, it is almost impossible to put two sentences together without mentioning this country. Entombed, Dismember, Grave, Carnage… These are names that shaped not the music of an era, but the genetic makeup of an affliction people are still chasing today. So naturally, when we come across a new Swedish death metal band in 2026, expectations are bound to rise. Especially when the band says in its own bio, “We pay homage to the old masters, but we also add our own layer of grime and filth.” Well, let’s see…

Cryptorium are a young Swedish death metal band formed in 2022. Following their debut album Descent into Lunacy, Through the Bowels of Ceaseless Dissonance is the band’s second full-length. They kick things off in an unconventional way, though: piano. It is a well-thought-out opening that establishes an atmosphere and, within the first few seconds, makes you think, “Wait a minute, is something different about to happen here?”

Then the guitars kick in, and the answer arrives:

HM-2.

Of course, HM-2.

At this point, it is almost going to be against Swedish law for a death metal band in Sweden not to use this pedal. On Through the Bowels of Ceaseless Dissonance, the guitars immediately take control. Riffs built around classic Swedish chord progressions, plenty of chainsaw noise, and a nicely worked-in melody and solo around the 3:00 mark. Towards the end of the track, the HM-2 really starts getting out of control. So far, everything is exactly as it should be.

Malodor, meanwhile, is the album’s Swedish death metal ID card. You don’t need to do any detective work to figure out what this band loves. The old-school Swedish school of death metal is right there in all its naked glory.

The guitar work, particularly in the second half of Rivers of Celestial Blood, is one of the album’s more notable moments. In Bitter Remorse gives you a little room to breathe with its slow opening, but once the intro is over, the HM-2 assault begins again. The way the track opens up after the three-minute mark, with the guitars moving to the forefront, works nicely. The piano in the outro also returns to the atmospheric touch heard at the beginning of the album.

Revolting Obsession begins with drones and whispers. For a moment, you think, “Okay, something dark is coming now.” Then the guitars come crashing in so hard that the entire atmosphere goes “thud!” and hits the floor. The punkish drumming adds a different kind of movement to the track. After the solo around the two-minute mark, the tempo drops, the song catches its breath, and around 3:50 we return to the familiar Cryptorium world.

The use of synthesizer on Corpus Effigy is noteworthy. This is one of those moments when the band tries to step outside the classic formula. Concrete Interment, meanwhile, creates one of the album’s more entertaining moments with its opening built around drums and guitar hitting together. The interplay between the drums and guitar gives the track rhythm and movement, and the outro brings things to a nice close.

So, what does all of this mean?

This is where we need to put the brakes on a little.

It is obvious that Cryptorium’s musicians love this music. And then some. You can feel that they grew up listening to records by bands like Dismember, Entombed, Grave, and Carnage. And that is exactly where the problem begins.

Because this album has all the right ingredients for Swedish death metal: HM-2, classic chords, filthy guitars, old-school riffs, occasional atmospheric touches, and some nice ideas in certain tracks.

But what is missing is Cryptorium itself.

The band’s bio says that they “pay homage to the old masters while adding our own layer of grime and filth.” Nice line. But when you listen to the album, that “own layer” is not particularly easy to find. The filth here is mostly inherited from the past. The band has yet to leave its own fingerprints on it.

Of course, you can mention Dismember, Entombed, Grave, or Carnage. But these names can only really be cited here as reference points. Because what these bands did was not simply play Swedish death metal. They shaped the character of the genre. Cryptorium, meanwhile, are still moving around inside a character that has already been established.

The production is neither very good nor very bad. It is somewhere in the middle. The guitars are naturally the boss of the album. The HM-2 wall has been built so high that, at times, it is difficult even to remember that there is a bass guitar in there. The drums, meanwhile, are the album’s weakest link. They add movement to the songs in certain sections, but overall, they have yet to move beyond a beginner’s level.

And as a result of all this, there is a serious sense of “lack of excitement” running through the album.

There are no bad riffs.

There are no bad songs, either.

But there are very few moments strong enough to make you go, “Holy shit!”

The album ends, and all that remains is the thought, “I listened to a nice Swedish death metal album.”

I think Cryptorium still have a long road ahead of them. For a band formed in 2022, this is certainly not the end of the world. On the contrary, the fact that they already have such a solid understanding of the genre on their second album offers hope for the future. But simply following in the footsteps of their elders will no longer be enough. Because at a certain point, sounding like Dismember becomes no different from listening to Dismember.

Cryptorium’s next job is not to turn off the HM-2; it is to make their own voice heard behind it.

Through the Bowels of Ceaseless Dissonance is not a bad album in this respect. In fact, it is a sincere effort that fans of the genre can easily enjoy, with some nice riffs and atmospheric touches here and there. But the second half of the “homage to the old masters + our own filth” formula claimed in the band’s bio has not yet fully materialized.

For now, rather than saying Cryptorium are erecting their own tombstone in the graveyard, it would be more accurate to say they are visiting the graves of their elders.

But the graveyard is big.

And there is still plenty of room for them.

We don’t need Cryptorium to remind us of Dismember, Entombed, Grave, and Carnage. If we want to hear them again, all we have to do is open the record shelf.

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