The cold steel of a foot-long, freshly sharpened chef’s knife glides through hypodermic skin, muscle, and connective tissue in an effortless fashion. Massive strips of flesh and fat are carved away from femur bones and stacked onto bloody mounds like the helpings of giant syrup-drenched pancakes. A one hundred litre tank of blood is secured shut at its full capacity. Eyeballs, kidneys, nipples, and teeth are added to mason jars and proudly displayed atop ornate antique wooden furnishings. The new Cryptworm album is here, and its arrival rains down upon us like a violent shower of iron-rich red fluid.
The album, which is entitled ‘Infectious Pathological Waste’, is the third full-length studio album offering from these Bristol based gore-hoarders. Like the band’s previous two outings, the record arrives on the wonderful Me Saco Un Ojo Records, a label that is something of a contemporary force within the British extreme Metal underground. If the accompanying album artwork and the initial paragraph of this review have not yet implied, this band is brutal. This particular record is a classic blunt outing into the realm of a Brutal Death Metal gore feast. The familiar absurdist gurgles of vocalist / guitarist Tibor Hanyi return, offering a performance akin to the sounds found on projects by Digested Flesh, Demilich and Last Days of Humanity. Album number three here is an absolute riff fest, full of immediately infectious and morbid glee-inducing guitar sections. It’s a direct, easy to appreciate, and wonderfully heavy album that clocks in at thirty-five minutes of artillery fire entertainment.
The experience begins with ‘Gallons of Molten Hominal Goo’, where the mix displays a saturated bouncy density that reminds me of many classics from the brutal New York scene. As busy as the track is, there is a very organic nature to the performance, and every bulbous instrumental tone is given plenty of space to breathe. In particular, I really love the vibrational presence of the bass guitar amongst all of the surrounding heft. The solid mixing effort remains a coherent facet throughout the album’s runtime. ‘Maimed and Gutted’ takes the riffing towards a woozy and disorientating spiral. The entire song is brilliant, and the great many riff ideas and tempo transitions keep my ears glued in anticipation for whatever detour shows up next. It’s the sort of invigorating fun that makes me want to smash my forehead through every desk I find within a fifty metre radius, declaring myself the reincarnation of Chuck Norris in the process.
I enjoy the more mid-tempo assault of the title song, with its various progressions feeling reminiscent to me of certain Skinless tracks. ‘Emanations of Corporeal Pyosis’ is a groove monster, its central pam-muted guitar progression clicking forwards like steel abattoir machinery. The closing track ‘Encephalic Feast’ begins by slowing things to a crawl, like a legless zombie’s torso dragging itself across the tiles of a blood-soaked laboratory floor. The pace picks up again around the song’s mid section for one last hurrah of agile riffing joy. Finally, the album bows out to Hanyi’s prolonged gurgles, like gaseous bubbles rising to the top of a polymer drum containing highly-corrosive acid.
Infectious Pathological Waste is a stark reminder of why I love Brutal Death Metal. When done well, the bombastic and expressive nature of this over-the-top style can often make way for projects where everything that is great about them is so glaringly obvious. Catchy riffs, rhythms, and performances? Check. Disgusting vocal work? Check. Impressive technical skill? Check. Production on point? Absolutely. All of the fun that I’ve been having with this record so far means that this may well be the first album of 2026 to make my top albums of the year list by December.
