REVIEW - Cryptic Shift: Overspace & Supertime (lunatic prog-tech extreme metal)

Cryptic Shift

Overspace & Supertime

Metal Blade Records

February 27, 2026

In truth, I am too much of an ignorant to really understand this record. Look, have you ever seen the old episodes of Star Trek? Those the ones with the Captain Kirk? In those shows, they have some noises... how do you say? Garly space-age sounds. It is what the people, the population at large, they come to imagine are the noises of space: the travel of the stars, the big machines in the vacuum, the sounds of the alien planets, and all those things. Well, then. These Brits, they must have been thinking, "How do we play the metal? The extreme, technical, progressive metal?" And then they decided to throw all those science fictions into the music. It is a thing most strange, but there it is.

Metal Archives shows that this British prog-extreme metal band began in 2011, having released two EPs and one album in 2020 before this new one in 2026. I have been wondering why the album feels like too much, but this band went the route of self-indulgent prog-tech metal, and they are shameless about it all. The album is long, to say the least; I mean, just look at this information: "Cryogenically Frozen" (09:24), "Stratocumulus Evergaol" (29:26 --twenty-nine minutes!), "Hyperspace Topography" (09:40), "Hexagonal Eyes (Diverity Trepaphymphasyzm)" (10:05), and "Overspace & Supertime" (20:22 -twenty minutes!), totaling a massive 01:18:57. No wonder my small knuckledragger brain cannot process this album; I think we need Albert Einstein and the Captain Kirk to unravel this mystery.

This album is crazy enought to the Rush Gedddy Lee say aloud to this band, "Guys, perhaps you have too many rhythm changes maybe?! Don't get me wrong, I love it, but you know, I could be wrong, but this album is maybe too smart for the general population?" But this band does not care! They do what they want to! Therefore, while the Geddy Lee and I may have some problems understanding the music, these guys are like roaming hyenas in space looking for those listeners that want: Adventure! Excitement! Complexity! An album that will take six years to understand! Six years because that's how long they need until they make a new one. It took six years to make this one.

The jazz-metal-from-space has arrived and it is called Cryptic Shift. I need my helmet for this one! May the force be with you. Live long and prosper, Cryptic Shift.

Overspace & Supertime by Cryptic Shift

Cryptic Shift - Hexagonal Eyes (Diverity Trepaphymphaszym) (Official Video)

https://www.facebook.com/crypticshift