THE BEAST

Originally released on cassette tape earlier this summer, Profaani introduced KRYPTAMOK with an icy fury. And yet, the band is hardly a newcomer per se, as main man Hex Inferi is a veteran of the always fertile Finnish black metal underground, having played in Vordven in the late '90s and early 2000s and more recently as the bassist of the institutional Horna. Fittingly, then, KRYPTAMOK is pure and total Finnish black metal classicism: blazing passion pitted against cryogenic melody, filthy thrust imbued with a nightsky atmosphere. And yet, Hex Inferi shows an epic, more haunting aspect compared to his no-less-distinguished contemporaries, suggesting that Profaani is a righteous foundation on which KRYPTAMOK will no doubt build.