KRYPTOS "Afterburner"

KRYPTOS

“Afterburner”

By the time the lead song and title track of “Afterburner” had finished playing, I was pretty excited to hear more from KRYPTOS, one of many new bands leading the charge for Indian heavy metal. That song was a 100% ass-kicking piece of blazing fast heavy metal with a killer main riff, snarling vocals and an overall feeling of something from the dawn of the thrash/speed metal era. An album full of tracks like this would announce the arrival of a major new talent on the world metal stage!

Alas, that didn’t happen. Well, KRYPTOS is certainly not the only band to start an album with their best track and then fail to match it. The following tunes on “Afterburner” slowed down considerably and by the end of the album, they had begun to plod. Not that album collapsed completely, because there is still a reasonable amount of good metal here, but it’s just that “Afterburner” set expectations incredibly high.

On the whole, this trio draws more influence from ACCEPT and JUDAS PRIEST than thrash metal. Track number 2 “Cold Blood” is more of a steady chug with occasional twin guitar melodies...not bad at all. I really like the vocalist here, with his dry raspy snarling….no trace of an Indian accent or any accent at all, for that matter. The guys have their heart in the right place and play riffy metal influenced by the classics, but there are some songs that just go too long and repeat a chord into monotony...”Red Dawn” and “Into the Wind” being the two main offenders. Those just kind of plodded along when they needed an injection of the same kind of vinegar “Afterburner” had.
KRYPTOS is a band to watch and they draw inspiration from the right sources…they just need to work on the songwriting a bit.

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KRYPTOS