Not least of all, you will find very little comfort in the sound of Worm's successor, Matt McGachy's voice -- a throaty bark that has far more in common with that of the oft-reviled Mike DiSalvo. Subsequently it's hardly a surprise that Cryptopsy's sixth full-length sounds closer in style to _And Then You'll Beg_; at least that's what the haphazard collision of death metal, polyrhythms and groove on "Worship Your Demons" will lead you to believe. That is, right up until the clean vocals rear their head for the first time.

Yes, you read it -- a mere four songs in, and "Bemoan the Martyr" sees McGachy launch into a soaring croon. For a moment, you could even be forgiven for thinking that Layne Staley has been resurrected and has found his way into the Montreal troupe's confines. On "Leach", we're treated to several sequences which carry a heavy whiff of Meshuggah's clinical and oh-so-fashionable palette.

So, why am I not continuing with a lengthy diatribe calling for Cryptopsy to be drawn and quartered for "selling out to the man"? Well, because for starters that couldn't be further from the truth. Despite a greater variety in tempos and a more even balance between atonality and melody, it's unlikely that you'll see too many tracks on _The Unspoken King_ enjoying heavy rotation on MTV anytime soon. This remains a breathlessly intense exercise in sonic extremity. It may not sound like _Blasphemy Made Flesh_, but I'd happily wager that if it did there would be another legion of nay-saying pantywaists complaining about that too.