Is NECRYTIS a band that refuses to let the people hear the music?

Necrytis is a traditional heavy metal band with high singing and rocking and shredding riffs and they have their debut album now, which was released back in September 2017, called Countersighns. The band is comprised of Shane Wacaster on drums and vocals, Mark Sobus on bass, and guitarist Toby Knapp, a guitarist with a cult following due to his music with different metal genres and entities/bands, some defunct and many that are ongoing now.

I think that fans of traditional heavy metal, especially those that want some shredding and that want a vocalist who actually sings (not scream, not tough-guy talk-sing), might be a demographic for the band. The album should be interesting for people into that type of sound.

So what's the problem with this band?! Nothing, except that you might not be able to hear their music! Neither the Pure Steel Publishing site nor the band's Facebook page seems to have a song for you to hear.

Maybe some of the fans should mention this matter to them. --MMB

OFFICIAL: Through Pure Steel Publishing the newly founded NECRYTIS release their debut album 'COUNTERSIGhNS'. But if you think these guys are youngsters, you are completely wrong. With Toby Knapp on board, there's an old veteran of the US American Heavy/Power Metal scene, becoming well known in the Underground with Onward in the early 2000s. Now he's also active in acts such as Where Evil Follows and the Black Metal band Waxen. Joining NECRYTIS with ex-Pandemonium and current Sue's Idol drummer, he harkened back to the epic bombastic works of the faded Onward. Elaborate guitar leads, melodic structures with big Maiden and Priest influences as well as an expressive singer in the tradition of Michael Grant (R.I.P.), this is great stuff for every US Metal fan. Mastered by Jens Bogren, 'COUNTERSIGhNS' has a powerful yet warm production. Melodic Power/Heavy Metal that couldn't be better.

OFFICIAL: The brainchild of drummer and lyrical visionary Shane Wacaster, Necrytis is the metallic result of both careful preparation and synchronicity.

Wacaster had recently finished work on the second album from his critically acclaimed band Sue's Idol in 2016 when new ideas for something even better began to take root. Left on his own and without collaborative partners, Shane started rapidly receiving lyrics, drum beats and vocal melodies almost as if he was taking dictation from another realm. With no band in place he fiercely documented and recorded all the musical information he seemed to be ‘receiving’ and when a full album's worth of material presented itself intact, almost by otherworldly guidance, Wacaster began the search for musicians to help him realize his vision.

Enter bassist Mark Sobus, who worked with Wacaster's drum beats and vocal melodies. Sobus pinpointed the proper keys Wacaster was singing in to find his driving root note oriented bass riffs and he locked in tightly with the bombastic drum tracks that were provided him. Now a carefully prepared template and foundation of what would be Necrytis's debut album "COUNTERSIGhNS" was in place. Soaring vocal melodies, intelligent lyrics, pounding basslines and a double bass drum onslaught now awaited the addition of a guitarist. The two members initially had a guitarist in the fold but things did not go as planned and for a brief moment the future of this masterful vision was in question.

Enter Shane Wacaster's high school heavy-metal bandmate from 1987, founder of the legendary band Onward, guitarist Toby Knapp. Wacaster had heard through a mutual friend that Knapp wouldn't be available because of a grueling year of recording three albums back to back. Indeed, when Knapp was presented with the idea of adding a fourth album to his year he was reportedly “concerned" he wouldn't have any inspiration nor anything left to contribute. Plus, how could an album be written and recorded in reverse by traditional standards? Drums first, then vocals, followed by bass and finally guitar? Very unorthodox to say the least.

The muse that guides the hands of musicians sealed their fate when Knapp heard the foundation Wacaster and Sobus had recorded. Knapp immediately went to work with no hesitation and completed all guitar tracks from scratch using cues from drums, basslines and vocal melodies to help him breathe fiery guitar riffing into the music- which pleasantly recalled Onward's debut album "Evermoving". Notably, this is the first album Knapp has recorded with an actual human drummer since Onward's "Reawaken". Who better than the musician he started with in a garage thirty years ago? Synchronicity continued to guide the album into the hands of one of Germany's leading Heavy Metal labels: Pure Steel Records.

Very special finishing touches were added to sound and packaging via the incredible mastering of Jens Bogren who has worked with what amounts to a "who's who" of the greatest metal bands in the industry and the breathtaking art and graphics of the legendary JP Fournier. If Necrytis's "COUNTERSIGhNS" is a ‘sign’ of things to come, we are in for a long and exciting journey with Power Metal's newest and most electrifying power trio!

1. Praetorian X 05:14

2. Palace of Agony 03:53

3. Nova Meridian 03:51

4. Sentry's Scream 05:42

5. God as Electric 04:44

6. My Asylum 05:01

7. Dawn's Aurora 03:27

8. Daemon Angelus 05:12

9. In Ascent 04:21

10. Countersighns 04:44

total time: 46:09

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