The death metal vet reveals how his trip down a social media rabbit hole offered a sobering glimpse of a society growing more reliant on tech and more disconnected from reality.
Earlier this month, Canadian death metal masters Cryptopsy delivered a brand new record, As Gomorah Burns, via Nuclear Blast. Some 11 years since the release of the band’s eponymous self-titled album, Cryptopsy is still regarded as one of the most revered international extreme metal bands.
With a history that goes back three decades, and includes a revolving line up of supremely talented musicians, Cryptopsy is currently composed of guitarists Christian Donaldson and Jon Levasseur, bassist Oliver Pinard, drummer Flo Mounier, and vocalist Matt McGachy. The band is once again set to hit the road to promote the new record and lay waste to cities across North America with The Carnival of Death Tour 2023 featuring opening acts Reaping Asmodeia and Abysmal Dawn, with Visceral Disgorge, Warforged, and Hate on select dates. The 28 date tour will traverse across the country, coinciding with the arrival of their first studio effort in more than a decade.
Vocalist Matt McGachy recently took time to speak with Knotfest. He spoke about the band’s detailed history and different eras, why fans have an intense passion for the band’s 1996 seminal album None So Vile, and the concept behind As Gomoroah Burns, which compares the tales of destructive Biblical lore, with the modern age of technology and the underbelly of the Internet – including his own dealings with addiction to social media.
“I came up with the name As Gomorah Burns, from former Cryptopsy singer Mike DiSalvo, when I interviewed him for my podcast Vox and Hops,” McGachy said. “As it turns out, at one point the name of the band before Cryptopsy was Gomorrah. I just thought that sounded like such a cool name, and it just stuck with me,” he said.
As for the concept behind Cryptopsy’s latest slab of brutality, McGachy said that he wanted to find a concept he truly believed in. “I started thinking about my own personal addictions to social media and then eventually I got the idea to compare the Biblical story of Sodom of Gomorrah with the rise of technology, specifically the internet and social media,” he said.
McGachy admitted that the internet is a place of wealth, knowledge and connectivity for people to be social. “But there is also a very dark side to the internet,” he said. “For instance, there are online cults, bigotry, racism, hatred, pedophilia, misinformation, cyber bullying and people being defamed. Right now, there are many people who mostly live out there on the internet, on social media literally 24/7, like all of these social media influencers. They all seem to be content and living happy lives online, but in reality they are super miserable and totally isolated… They are just putting on a facade for everyone. This is common.”
McGachy said he used these thoughts to further develop the concept of the album; “All of these darker elements to the Internet including my own addiction to social media, served as as inspiration to the creative process of writing this album,” he said. “In a way, it was a writing experiment, I tried and tried to write from the perspective of real life events that occurred.”
McGachy said there was no shortage of recent news stories highlighting the dark side of the internet that served well as source material. “I found people being catfished, people being brainwashed, being stalked online and worse and this all culminated into my fuel for writing the lyrics for this album.”
When it comes to the music however, McGachy is adamant that the album will please fans used to a certain sound, but also push the boundaries of brutality. “The music on this album is very groovy and yet very dark, fast and intense,” he said. “This is a band that has so many different eras to it, each with its own style and sound. All of us in the band agreed, we wanted to honor the legacy Cryptopsy has endured for all these years, with calculated chaos and a very heavy groove and sense of darkness that Cryptopsy is known for. I am confident that both old and new fans will love this album.”
Diving a bit more into the age of technology and its possible negative impacts on society as it relates to the new album, McGachy said that the album could be used as a way for certain people to explore and analyze how they use the Internet, social media, and technology in general. “I just think there will be consequences for all this over use of technology, especially for children growing up today,” he said. “It’s conditioned kids today to be incapable of being bored; they need constant new stimulation all the time and we have no attention spans. I’m not judging anyone, I find myself being the same way. Our brains are not used to being idle, and that worries me. Being bored is a catalyst for creativity. I feel that throughout history people being bored was responsible for a lot of amazing things in this world in terms of art, music, literature. People have less creativity the more they rely on technology.”
McGachy details that he at one point found himself in a tailspin, addicted himself to psychological ripcurrent of social media several years ago. “Honestly, social media is a cesspool, there is so much garbage out there,” he said. “Of course there are positives as well but people need to think for themselves. I got deep into social media, and fell down the rabbit hole in 2018, when I started my podcast,” he said of Vox and Hops, the vocalist’s podcast that focuses on metal musicians and the intersection of great music and even better beer. “I used social media to promote my show, and I still do, but it’s a slippery slope.”
McGachy said he succumb to said slippery slope during the Covid lockdowns in 2020. “When the pandemic happened, I just jumped into it head first and focused on my podcast, because all the bands were home anyways. During that time, I did a lot of interviews and spent a lot of my time on online. I saw a lot of people playing with these facades with their pages, totally delusional; I knew they were not well but they made it seem like they were living perfect lives online for everyone to see and envy.”
McGachy said apart from artistic expression, he hopes that the album might possibly make some people self analyze and reconnect IRL. “Hopefully 1 or 2 people will read what I’m writing on this album and recognize their own addictions to social media and the internet. I feel things are moving at a faster rate, now we have AI coming into all facets of our lives, and more people are becoming obsessed with this virtual online world, but the way I see it, is that it’s not real, it’s not the physical world.”
Switching gears to a much more in-person experience, McGachy said that Cryptopsy is beyond eager to get back out on the road where they belong. “We love being busy. Between our last self-titled, and this new record, we did 2 EPS, and toured around the world playing the entire None So Vile album. In 2019, the last tour we did was in asia. Then, we were at home writing when the pandemic hit.”
McGachy said that while the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns did not directly influence As Gomorah Burns, the band was certainly affected in terms of recording and rehearsals for the album. “It was a strange time for us all, which is why it took so long to get this record out,” he said. “We all have kids and we had to get day jobs to stay a float since there was no touring. The album was done in stages, but it got done. We did a lot of it separately since we could not all be in person obviously due to restrictions.
Chris Donaldson, our guitarist, was also the producer for this record. He really drove this album home, got the best performances out of us. We’re super stoked with the results.”
Speaking to the longevity of the band, McGachy said one thing he loves and finds interesting is the passion people still have for Cryptopsy’s classic 1996 album, None So Vile.
“There is just something special about None So Vile. I loved it when I was not even in the band,” he said. “When we toured and played that album in its entirety a few years back, we saw people’s reactions and felt people’s intensity and love for those songs.”
McGachy said the band still discusses why this album has left such an impression on people. “We always talk about why people seem to love this particular album after all these years, and I think it’s just a perfect storm situation. The riffs are amazing. Flo’s performance is insane; he’s such a monster of a drummer. The album is sick, vulgar, and extremely dark, but still very heavy and groovy with lots of melodies and chaotic guitar work. The record is flawless to this day. It has a strange approach to the vocals.
To be honest, I think a major reason this album is so strong is Lord Worm,” he said.
“In my opinion, None So Vile is Lord Worm’s best vocal performance, he is one of the best death metal vocalists without a doubt. I heard a story about how he just came into the vocal booth with a huge bottle of whisky and finished the entire album and the bottle in 5 hours.”
McGachy said that despite how much people love None So Vile, he is grateful Crytopsy has not just repeated the same formula and sound for its subsequent albums. “I’ve always said this band could have done” [None So Vile] “over and over again in a cookie cutter fashion and could have been more massive like other death metal bands. But they went in a much more chaotic, and intense approach with new vocalists and body of work all different from its predecessor.”
As for the band’s first album back in more than a decade, McGachy said that fans will definitely get to hear a mix of classic old tunes as well as several tracks from the new record when the band plays a city near you on their Carnival of Death Tour. “We’ve put together a tight setlist and we will be playing some new songs, for sure! People love this band’s legacy, so we will also play songs from almost every album; this set list is intensely groovy and very well balanced presentation of old songs and new songs.”
McGachy also went onto forecast the band’s upcoming stretch with a sense of optimism about the future., He asserted thar Cryptopsy aren’t slowing down, the band will forge on and have some special anniversary tours and shows in the making. “After this tour, we have a little bit of time to recoup, but then we go back out, and will be touring East Asia in December for at least 10 shows so far,” he said. “Plus, it’s the 30th anniversary of the release of the very first demo, Ungentle Exhumation, so we have some special shows for that line up. Also, we’ll be playing the entire album Blasphemy Made Flesh in its entirety at Maryland DeathFest next year.”
All in all, McGachy said he is lucky to be part of Cryptopsy. “I’m so lucky to be able to tour, and be part of such a legendary band. We can’t wait to get back on the road..lots of fans of my podcast i can’t wait to drink beers, rage and hang out with all our fans!”
As Gomorrah Burns is now available via Nuclear Blast Records. Order the album – HERE
CRYPTOPSY is currently slaying audiences on the Carnival of Death on tour with special guests ABYSMAL DAWN, HATE and VISCERAL DISGORGE. Tickets are available now – HERE
CRYPTOPSY Tour Dates:
09.26. CA. Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theater
09.27. US. Boise, ID – The Shredder
09.29. US. Denver, CO – HQ
09.30. US. Lincoln, NE – Cosmic Eye Live
10.01. US. Joliet, IL – The Forge
10.02. US. Grand Rapids, MI – The Pyramid Scheme
10.03. CA. Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
10.04. CA. Kingston, ON – Overtime Sports Bar
10.05. CA. Quebec City, QC – La Source De La Martiniere
10.06. CA. Montreal, QC – Foufounes Electriques
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