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CRYPTIC SHIFT
Overspace & Supertime

Metal Blade (2026)
Rating: 9/10

If legendary science fiction writer Isaac Asimov had been an extreme metal fan then Leeds, England-based adventurers Cryptic Shift would have been on his radar. Emphatically emblazoning the ears is Overspace & Supertime, a scintillating fusion of tech thrash n’ death that beams you up to the higher echelons of their otherworldly zenith. Featuring members of UK death metal bands Slimelord and Cryptworm, this dizzying affair shows love for a myriad of bands ranging from Atheist to Vektor and Cynic but with so much weaved between and around the perimeters.

Drizzled with enough solos to turn you inside out and a multitude of riffs to twist your innards, Cryptic Shift’s second full-length vomits forth lyrical content you’ll spend an age deciphering. The lads know their stuff when it comes to creating cosmic designs, but the audience needs to give this platter several runs to appreciate its levels as there are many.

The fact that the album boasts two songs over 20 minutes a piece says a lot for what kind of colossus Cryptic Shift has become. I’m baffled as to how axe team Joss Farrington and Xander Bradley construct such inhuman riffs; they blaze like extraterrestrial machines which constantly change course while operating at warp speed. Bassist John Riley weaves tricky lines which skip between meaty chugs, and drummer Ryan Sheperson grows extra limbs to construct his mighty web of tumbles and slams.

To a point, the ridiculous track titles – ‘Hexagonal Eyes (Diverity Trepaphymphasyzm)’ for example – just add further noodling to the labyrinth as your brain is already mangled by the 80 minutes of staggering musicality throughout the album’s duration. To describe these songs as cosmic journeys would be more apt, especially upon experiencing ‘Stratocumulus Evergaol’ with its multi-level and monolithic cinematic death thrash expressions.

Every now and then an album comes along and reviews of its contours just don’t do it justice. Overspace & Supertime is one of those records, a composition that could, if you’re not careful, drain you of life due to the concentration required in attempting to explore its otherworldly regions. It’s not even as if the guys sacrifice weight for experimental physics; the aggression is ever present, distributed as volatile torrents which are occasionally sprinkled with jazzed-up spices. This kind of progressive extremity was all the rage in the early 90s, but somehow Cryptic Shift has taken such dynamics further but maintaining weight and ferocious execution.

Anomalous intricacies and amalgamations collide over quizzical and unorthodox pulverisations, namely in the form of cosmic throb ‘Cryogenically Frozen’. Combining elements of Blood Incantation and Death, Cryptic Shift brings a title track littered with distortion (and two theremin solos from Mike Browning of Nocturnus) and, as their moniker suggests, a myriad of cryptic shifts and twists crisply delivered so as to avoid galactic congestion.

To describe this album as immersive is an understatement to say the least. Overspace & Supertime is simply staggering; a portal to plateaus previously unreached while at the same time caressing the threads left behind by bands such as Atheist. Denizens of deep space would surely approve such tumultuous transmissions.

Neil Arnold

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