Tonight is ROCKFLESH’s fourth trip of the year to Preston’s Ferret, the recently saved venue seemingly undergoing a brilliant rock/metal renaissance, with a string of top genre bands already under their belt, with more lined up for the second half of 2024. Grabbing international bookings of the calibre of a band like Crypta is quite the coup for the grassroots venue, giving North West death metal devotees the chance to witness this stellar band up close and personal in a sweaty, raucous display performance of epic proportions, as well as cementing their position as the city’s most vibrant live scene.   

But wait, we’re getting ahead of ourselves, first up are Manchester Technical Deathcore heroes Odysseus; with two drum kits occupying much of The Ferret’s relatively modest stage, the four-piece band don’t have a huge amount of space in which to ply their fiery trade, but they’re not going to let a little thing like that prevent them from making a massive impression which they promptly and emphatically do.  With the lead guitarist through necessity having to take up residence on the dance-floor (mere feet from ROCKFLESH photographer Darren’s lens), magenta dread-locked vocalist Rachael Downey is the band’s lynch-pin and focus of the on-stage activity, her formidable harsh vocals, felt as much as heard, as she holds court over all she surveys. Complementing Rachael’s dominant on-stage persona, the tunnelling, spidering bass and insistent drums entwine and embed themselves in your skull and absolutely demand you move to their dark grooves. 

Theirs is a sensory overload of the best kind, all-encompassing in its brutal embrace.  And even when the tempo slows the intensity remains.  By the fourth song Rachael has joined the guitarist on the dance floor and by this point song titles are almost unimportant; it’s a primal sound that subverts and challenges and doesn’t recognise the accepted rules of regular metal shows.  It speaks to the lizard brain in a way that is at once aggressive and challenging but paradoxically comforting at the same time.  Odysseus’ set comes to an end in a final coruscating blaze of strobe lighting in a frenetic crescendo leaving the Ferret crowd stunned but rabidly eager for the main event. 

And as the stage is cleared and reset ahead of Crypta’s arrival, there is a palpable sense of rising excitement and expectation amongst the assembled masses, only heightened by the arrival of a semi-circle of ceremonial daggers adorning the central mic stand, and swords draped in blood red velvet set up around the stage.  Despite these theatrical trappings (drawn from their latest album cover and featured in the ‘Lord of Ruins’ video) Crypta simply don’t need them to make an impact live, as from the second they set foot on stage, the delicate piano intro of ‘The Aftermath’ comes to an end and they launch into ‘The Other Side of Anger’, you’re grabbed by the throat and held in a breathless death grip until the final note of the set dies away. The Brazilian four-piece are touring Europe in support of their latest album “Shades of Sorrow” with ten of the songs in tonight’s set culled from this release with a smattering or tunes from their debut album making up the rest of the setlist. 

Lead vocalist and bass-player Fernanda Lira prowls and growls across the stage her vocals ranging from bestial, guttural snarls, to larynx-shredding screams, each style deployed perfectly to illustrate the specific song and its themes.  She is the dark heart of Crypta, demonically hypnotic in her performance, daring you to look away from her powerful presence, as she glares through each number. 

The technical ability on display here is simply phenomenal; Luana Dametto is an absolutely masterful force behind the kit, her precision, accuracy and speed almost beyond description, gorgeously inventive fills and immaculate double bass runs underpinning the ferocious Crypta assault.  And whilst this may be standard fare for the genre, Luana also manages to inject at times an altogether different groove and rhythmic flavour to her patterns and beats, adding another layer and texture to Crypta’s music. Having said that, each band member is a superb musician in their own right, and absolutely needs to be at the top of their game to perform at this level of technical expertise; but all are more than up to the challenge and when they come together as a whole, that collective becomes something really quite extraordinary. 

When Fernanda asks if we’d like a “fast one” (which seems almost laughable in the face of the velocity we’ve already experienced) the crowd roar back in response, punching the air with a vengeance as the band tear into ‘Dark Clouds’. But for all the speed and attack, there is a surprising amount of nuance and delicacy within Crypta’s canon, which makes for a fascinating and engaging spectacle, those moments of respite making the full-on assault hit even harder when it kicks back in.   

Death metal really needs to be experienced live to fully appreciate its raw vibrancy and power, and Crypta in full flight show why they are such amazing exponents of the form.  Tonight’s show is an object lesson in the craft of delivering a viciously compelling but at the same time, truly intoxicating show and the Preston crowd absolutely laps it up, completely enamoured with the deliciously devilish, bravura performance.  A small pit opens up, there’s old school headbanging, hair spinning and windmilling, others are stomping and swaying, thoroughly entranced, everyone interpreting and feeling the groove in their own individual way. And in amongst the madness, there are transcendent moments - guitarist Taina Bergamaschi makes eye-contact with a young fan, and for a few seconds plays directly to her and only her.  The luminous joy on the fan’s face as she turns to find her Dad and clasps her hands together in sheer delight is a moment of light in the darkness and shines all the brighter because of it; it shows the power and impact of rock music, in all its forms and connections like this one, forged in a grassroots club on a Tuesday night with a member of a Death Metal band from the other side of the world are just as, if not more, life-changing and formative than anything that any arena bothering mainstream act could ever dream of. 

The closing trilogy of the swirling ‘Agents of Chaos’ (that allows the prodigiously talented Jessica di Falchi to let rip with yet the latest in the long list of tonight’s epic solos), the fabulously heavy, soul-crushing punch of ‘Lord of Ruins’ and the final ‘From the Ashes’ bludgeon the Ferret crowd into a frenzied state of delirium before Crypta are gone, leaving only dark echoes and stunned faces in their wake.   

That there can be so much joy in Death Metal is surely one of life’s great ironies, given its inherently dark nature, but if you give yourself over to it and allow yourself to succumb to its morbid charms, the payback is immeasurable, as Crypta so richly demonstrated in tonight’s truly memorable show. 

Check the “In The Flesh” page for more photos!
Crypta + Odysseus