{"id":105867,"date":"2026-02-27T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T00:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=105867"},"modified":"2026-03-11T11:24:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:24:44","slug":"album-review-cryptic-shift-overspace-and-supertime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-cryptic-shift-overspace-and-supertime\/","title":{"rendered":"CRYPTIC SHIFT – Overspace & Supertime (2026) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRYPTIC SHIFT
\nOverspace & Supertime<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nMetal Blade (2026)<\/span>
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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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<\/em>, a scintillating fusion of tech thrash n\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

Drizzled with enough solos to turn you inside out and a multitude of riffs to twist your innards, Cryptic Shift\u2019s second full-length vomits forth lyrical content you\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019m 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.<\/p>\n

To a point, the ridiculous track titles \u2013 \u2018Hexagonal Eyes (Diverity Trepaphymphasyzm)\u2019 for example \u2013 just add further noodling to the labyrinth as your brain is already mangled by the 80 minutes of staggering musicality throughout the album\u2019s duration. To describe these songs as cosmic journeys would be more apt, especially upon experiencing \u2018Stratocumulus Evergaol\u2019 with its multi-level and monolithic cinematic death thrash expressions.<\/p>\n

Every now and then an album comes along and reviews of its contours just don\u2019t do it justice. Overspace & Supertime<\/em> is one of those records, a composition that could, if you\u2019re not careful, drain you of life due to the concentration required in attempting to explore its otherworldly regions. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Anomalous intricacies and amalgamations collide over quizzical and unorthodox pulverisations, namely in the form of cosmic throb \u2018Cryogenically Frozen\u2019. 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.<\/p>\n

To describe this album as immersive is an understatement to say the least. Overspace & Supertime<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019 death that beams you up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,6016],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-cryptic-shift"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105867"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105868,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105867\/revisions\/105868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}