CANADIAN CARNAGE: CRYPTOPSY REMINDS MELBOURNE WHY THEY'RE LEGENDS. WORDS BY MARK/PICS BY DAN MCKAY

 

CANADIAN CARNAGE: CRYPTOPSY REMINDS MELBOURNE WHY THEY'RE LEGENDS

CRYPTOPSY / WRITHING / MUNT

Croxton Bandroom, December 20, 2025

The Croxtons's seen their share of metal brutality over the years, but Friday night was something else entirely. Three bands, one sweaty room, and enough blast beats to permanently rewire your brain chemistry.

MUNT kicked things off around 8:30, and honestly? They came to fucking work. Local openers sometimes get written off, but these guys tore through their set like they had something to prove and after hearing their recent album, they've got every right to that confidence. 

This isn't some scrappy local band fumbling through their first EP. MUNT's writing is legitimately tight, their pugnacious riffs hit like a brick to the teeth, and they've got this nasty groove that makes you want to smash into someone.

The production on this new record is huge, and hearing those songs live proved they can actually pull it off without studio magic. Their drummer was absolutely battering the kit, fills coming in at weird angles that shouldn't work but somehow do. 

The vocalist's got serious range too—going from guttural lows to these harsh, venomous shouts that cut right through. And a mere two songs in, half the room was already moving, and you could see people who clearly didn't know them before suddenly paying attention. When they played the newer tracks with absolute utter venom, they sounded even meaner than the recorded version. 

Their track with the guest vocalist was stunningly melancholic, but crushing. Keep an eye on these guys—they're not staying local support slots for long.

WRITHING maintained the fierce aggression considerably. If you've been sleeping on this band, wake up. They've got this oppressive, churning heaviness that sits somewhere between death-doom sludge and more straightforward brutality—it's ugly and uncomfortable in all the right ways. 

The low end was monstrous, rattling the venue's already-questionable PA system into submission. 

Their guitarist's tone is so thick and downtuned it feels like it's physically crushing you, and the riffs just keep pummeling without mercy. No wanky solos, no pretentious interludes, just pure suffocating weight. 

Their vocalist sounds like he's being dragged through barbed wire while gargling gravel—completely inhuman. There's this one breakdown they dropped (pretty sure it was during their second or third song) where everything slowed to this nightmare crawl and the whole room just stopped moving, like everyone got hit with the same primal dread at once. Then it kicked back in, and the pit exploded.

Between songs, some joker yelled "PLAY FASTER", and they just laughed and proceeded to do exactly that, launching into what might've been their most unhinged track of the night. 

Their bassist was locked in the entire time, holding down these nasty grooves while the rest of the band went absolutely feral. 

Writhing's got this reputation for being punishing live, and they lived up to it completely. If you like your metal mean, murky, and merciless, this is your band.

Then Cryptopsy took the stage and basically reminded everyone why they're still doing this after three decades.

Matt McGachy's stage presence is completely unhinged—part relaxed singer, part genuine mania. 

He's pacing around, convulsing, screaming like his insides are trying to escape, and somehow it never feels like a gimmick. It's just who he is up there. 

Flo Mounier is an absolute machine. Watching him play is like watching someone solve complex math equations with drumsticks. The precision, the speed—it shouldn't be humanly possible, but there he is, doing it night after night. 

They opened with "Slit Your Guts", and the place absolutely erupted. Security immediately had its hands full.

The setlist was a good mix—older material like "Mutant Christ" and "Phobophile" hit exactly how you'd want them to, all that classic Canadian tech-death brutality cranked to 11. 

They threw in some newer tracks, too, though I'll be honest, the crowd response peaked hardest for the classics. That's just how it goes sometimes. Additionally, None So Vile is a truly perfect album.

Sound-wise, it was solid for the Croxton. You could actually hear the bass, which is saying something. Christian's guitar tone cut through perfectly—sharp, clinical, exactly what this kind of music needs. There were moments where the vocals got slightly buried in the mix, but that's nitpicking. Overall, for a venue this size with this much volume, it was dialled in.

The pit stayed active all night, with some decent circle action and a few crowd surfers getting passed around. One guy ate shit pretty hard during "Graves of the Fathers" but popped back up grinning. That's the spirit.

By the time they closed with "Malicious Needs," shirts were off, water bottles were empty, and everyone looked properly destroyed. 

If you skipped this show, you missed out. Cryptopsy's still got it, the supports delivered, and the Croxton held together despite its best efforts to fall apart.

Next time they're in town, don't sleep.

Brilliant photos as always by the super talented god-like Lord of the Rings extra- Dan McKay 

https://www.instagram.com/dannomc/

Cheers to Hardline Media for the access.