Bangalore’s KRYPTOS have traveled a long way since they were formed in 1998. The band has been building up their band profile little by little over the past years, getting more and more international recognition for themselves. Having already 3 albums on their way, the band’s latest record "The Coils Of Apollyon", is also the one that managed to get KRYPTOS signed to a major Metal label; German AFM Records. The band originally released "The Coils Of Apollyon" on their own little label Iron Fist Records in mid February 2012 but due to difficulties to get it distributed that effectively all around the world – and simply get it available for everyone, it’s awesome AFM Records used their chance well and took KRYPTOS under their massive and caring wings. Compared to KRYPTOS’ previous albums, "Spiral Ascent" (2004) and "The Ark Of Gemini" (2008), the band has taken huge leaps forward as far as their songwriting is concerned. By this, I don’t mean to say that the band’s previous albums would be bad somehow or anything like that but it’s just that on KRYPTOS’ 3rd album "The Coils Of Apollyon", it feels more like every bits and pieces have fallen exactly into the right places, sort of underlining all that determination the guys have, to write their best record to this date, in which they have also succeeded very well at. On the "The Coils Of Apollyon" album, KRYPTOS have truly refined their mix of old school Thrash, Heavy and Doom Metal, and pushed it to the next level by paying a bit more attention to some certain hooks, melody lines, vocal harmonies, production – and overall all of those essential things, just to make sure they could get a great album out. And they have done a marvelous job at that indeed. In fact, the album’s satisfactory level is pleasingly high and there’s nothing in there on this record that could irritate one way or the other. As for some certain details, guitarist and vocalist Nolan Lewis’ raspy vocalism does remind me of Ron Royce’s (CORONER) vocal delivery quite a bit, and if one song should be lifted up from the pack as my current favorite song, I find much love in a song called ‘Visions Of Dis’, which not only happens to be the album’s most lengthy tune but also the most eerie and heaviest track they have penned down for this opus. Now when all has been said and written, summing things up a little bit let me still say this it’s really KRYPTOS’ fine and indelible symbiosis of old school Thrash and Heavy Metal – with slices of Doom Metal, what makes "The Coils Of Apollyon" a true winner in the end. Here’s undoubtedly one of the best Metal albums released in 2012, I can already bet my hard-earned pennies for that. Band: www.kryptosindia.com, label: www.afm-records.de