Montreal marauders Cryptopsy pulverized the world last year with their first record in a decade, As Gomorrah Burns (Nuclear Blast). The album bolstered their claim as one of the best technical death-metal bands of all time and, adding some seriously sweet icing atop the cake, garnered the band a prestigious Juno Award in their Canada homeland. Now, Cryptopsy are shattering the metal world in a different sense, with news that the end is in sight for the long-running quartet.
Cryptopsy vocalist Matt McGachy revealed to New Noise in mid-July that the band will say sayonara in 10 years. The reason for the retirement is practical: Flo Mounier, one of metal’s most revered drummers, can’t hammer his percussion kit like a whirling dervish forever.
Anyone familiar with the group knows that its deified drummer is Cryptopsy’s greatest strength. Mounier’s drumming ability is such a sight to behold at his group’s concerts that throngs of attendees actually stand along the sides of the stage, behind the other band members, to witness Mounier’s sleight-of-hand masterwork.
Go with the Flo
Mounier joined the Cryptopsy fold in 1992, so he’s now spent more than three decades pouring his soul into delivering his spellbinding performances. His tenure in the group is a dozen years longer than his three bandmates, effectively granting him team captain status. After decades of putting his body to the test and hitting the drums so hard that Dave Grohl would bow to him, Mounier’s body won’t be able to keep doing so for much longer, according to McGachy.
“Flo just turned 50,” Mounier says. “He’s in great shape, sure. But there’s this little voice in the back of all of our heads (saying,) ’How many more years can he keep it up at this intensity, at the quality of playing that is necessary for his legacy?’ Things might change, hypothetically. But we definitely don’t want to be kicking a dead horse and dragging things out too long.”
McGachy, who hopped aboard the Cryptopsy train in 2007, continues: “(We want) to end at the pinnacle of our career. Cryptopsy is a band that never went away. Cryptopsy never called it quits. And Cryptopsy never had a comeback. We had a ‘comeback album’ (As Gomorrah Burns), some people would say—but not a hiatus. Cryptopsy has never stopped (for) over 30 years. (In 10 years, we will have had a 40- or 45-year career. We have to (maintain a high) caliber (as a band).”
As it is, McGachy seems tremendously satisfied with the exploits and achievements that Cryptopsy have already amassed.
“I’s phenomenal what (Cryptopsy have) built,” he says. “The band prior to me being involved in it had iconic albums. So many people have come in and put their touch on what Cryptopsy is. With that said, it would be nice to end on an extremely high note.”
Stay tuned for New Noise’s full conversation with McGachy, to be published soon.
Photo courtesy of Mike Lewis
