Lithuanian Death Metal band CRYPTS OF DESPAIR’s four members include three members from the Black / Thrash band LUCTUS. Their first full-length is a satisfying array of brutality and old school flavor, with riveting guitars and snarling vocals. ‘The Stench Of The Earth’ opens with droning, fuzzy guitars on the first track, churning and chugging its way through a mire of putridity in this instrumental before kicking in with a bludgeoning second track entitled ‘Path To Vengeance’, a title that applies wholeheartedly to its sound. ‘Pits Of Endless Torment’ pounds the door in with its almost galloping guitars. The fourth track ’77’ is sure to get any moshers triumphantly circling the pit in a lumbering daze. ‘Fleshless Eternity’ is a sonic-speed of teeth-grinding guitars / drums as the vocals grunt, growl and scream their way into our ears. ‘Enslaved In Blasphemy’ is a hulking monstrosity, stomping its monolithic giant form and crushing everything in its path. Things don’t let up as ‘Ravage The Earth’ continues the mass destruction. The good thing about CRYPTS OF DESPAIR is they supply a no-nonsense, bestial form of Death Metal without swaying from their goal. In a genre that sometimes attempts too hard to be different, this band knows what we want to hear and gets the job done. And what a title for track eight: ‘Possessed By Astral Parasites’! The song itself doesn’t disappoint from the intriguing title. It elbows its way through the masses with no apologies. ‘Monuments Of Fear’ takes about two minutes to get going, but when it does, it thrusts its mangled claw into our hearts and rips out our souls. The final track ‘Dead Light’ ends the album with a feverish, chaotic blood-spraying. Consistency in a Death Metal album is always the key, and CRYPTS OF DESPAIR excel at that. As long as the boys keep writing songs like these, they’ll have a lasting future in the genre. For more information, check out www.facebook.com/cryptsofdespair, www.facebook.com/testimonyrecords