When I see, "fully self-produced release" my first thoughts aren't, "I can't WAIT to hear THIS!" CRYPT CRAWLER's sophomore effort, "Future Usurper" doesn't exactly dispel that reaction but it's better than I had expected. The problem with most bands taking the helm with production duties is you lose that impartial oversight and big picture view of a project that only an outside voice can provide. In general, the obvious flaws for me are the guitar tones and vocal mix, and treatment. I appreciate the whole, "old-school" approach for many bands trying to recapture a specific time period in the genre and it feels like keeping the guitars raw and organic was the goal here but for me, they just sound cheap and thin. The vocals are also mixed a little too loud for my tastes and vocalist, MARCO IERITANO has on overtone to his growls that can become monotonous, I would have filtered that out a bit. These are minor adjustments but I feel that a slightly improved balance and modern polish to the guitars would put this album into a higher tier.

CRYPT CRAWLER list their influences as, DEATH, OBITUARY, and MORBID ANGEL but if I were to describe the sound of this album I would say it's a combination of METALLICA's, "Master of Puppets" and "Justice" with a bit of TESTAMENT'S, "The Gathering". The band has a really interesting way of introducing quiet elements to their songs and as much as I hate the dirty guitar sounds, I absolutely LOVE the clean passages. The musicianship and technical ability of this band is far above average but the real stand-out here is drummer, LEWIS OLIVERA. He puts in a powerhouse performance here drawing you into following your expectations for the next pattern and then doing something completely unpredictable. His deft cymbal work and bell patterns are delightful. Right about 2:50 into the title track, he starts introducing unique and interesting rhythms.

Overall, the entire album has a great deal of variety of tempo and texture as they move from section to section but it can feel somewhat disjointed as there doesn't appear to be any melodic or thematic component to tie them together. Sometimes it feels like it's just stringing a bunch of different riffs together to make a song. Although the songwriting feels very much like a young band, there is definitely great potential here. It is highly commendable that through all the lead guitar breaks- there is absolutely no wankery. All single-note guitar parts and harmonies are true melodies and there is no fluff or filler here. I expect to hear more great things from this band as they evolve.