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Critic Reviews
90
Cryptic Shift‘s sound has notably gotten tighter, the songwriting is more creative and, throughout, Visitations from Enceladus is extremely impressive and memorable right off the bat.
3y
90
Truth be told, this was a tough write-up, but only because the entire record ended up being so engaging that delving too deeply into its mechanics would have undermined its listenability.
3y
Is that SCP-354 on the album cover? No? Oh well. Moving on Visitations From Enceladus by Cryptic Shift is an experimental technical death-thrash album with sci-fi themes. It takes a lot of patience to listen to this album, but it is certainly a rewarding experience. The lyrics were great, telling their own story, the solos were beautifully written, the bass was audible and pretty complex. The main riffs were also fairly complex as well and the drumming complemented everything quite nicely. ... read more
Complex patrician Technical death metal record that will make you gain +5 IQ points
It has sophisticated layers of melodic passages, alien sounding chord progressions, prog influenced drumming and unconventional song structures (the first song is actually 25+ mins long but it deserves its length)
Only criticism is that at times it gets overbearingly cerebral, lacking emotional focus but it's quite fun getting lost in the labyrinthine ideas on this record!
Production is also from another ... read more
Blood Harvest Records, the label responsible for unleashing this unknowable cosmic behemoth into our dimension, label Cryptic Shift as "one of underground metal's best-kept secrets", and I gotta say... they aren't kidding!
Over the course of their relatively short lifespan, this band has evolved from performing pretty good thrash to the indescribable proggy, tech-death chaos star-storm they are today. No human words can really describe what's going on in Visitations From Enceladus. ... read more
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Track List
| 1 | Moonbelt Immolator 23:56 | 86 |
| 2 | (Petrified in the) Hypogean Gaol 7:20 | 84 |
| 3 | The Arctic Chasm 7:46 | 82 |
| 4 | Planetary Hypnosis 5:30 | 83 |
Total Length: 44 minutes
