apanthropy

Cryptic Shift
Overspace & Supertime
Metal Blade Records
To Be Released: February 27th, 2026

Rating: 9/10

“One could combine the technical fluidity of Species with the otherworldly destructive force of Blood Incantation, all while running it through a filter of Nothingface-era Voivod, and the end result would be something akin to Overspace & Supertime. But that’s barely scratching the surface.”

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1 – Cryogenically Frozen
2 – Stratocumulus Evergaol
3 – Hyperspace Topography
4 – Hexagonal Eyes (Diverity Trepaphymphasyzm)
5 – Overspace & Supertime
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The collective ambition of serious musicians can challenge the solidified convictions and definitions of sonic art. To challenge what is considered extreme in sound, composition, and execution is a somewhat idealistic endeavor when bands are not fully committed to the concept, but when a band comes together to enact a serious expression towards the conventions of normalness, it’s like heroes going to battle. Ideas fly free, every nuance and every angle of sound can be explored, nothing becomes everything, from frantic pacing to technical wonders, each frequency merging together to create something that resonates inside the listener’s consciousness. Many fail, some succeed.

Cryptic Shift was established in England, in 2011. Striking first with their 2014 demo, Old Chapel Demos, and moving forward consistently from that point on. A series of demos, splits, and EPs ultimately built-up and led into their 2020 debut full-length, Visitations from Enceladus. A four-way split would follow and then a period of silence lasting more than half a decade.

Set for release on February 27th, 2026, Cryptic Shift return with their sophomore effort, Overspace & Supertime, set to be issued through the well-known and long-standing metal institution, Metal Blade Records. The actualization of ambition is realized by a four-piece line-up that has produced something far beyond normalcy. With five songs stretching out to an incredible 1 hour and 18 minutes, these tracks surpass the concept of ‘song’ and become something of a matrix of sequences and bursts of sonic experiences, chained together and spinning in orbit around a central sci-fi narrative. There is, essentially, an album within the album, in the form of the massive ‘Stratocumulus Evergaol,’ the second track which clocks in at just shy of half an hour in length. The shortest track is still a staggering 9+ minutes in duration. This isn’t an ‘album,’ it’s a sonic voyage, and it delivers aural tapestries woven with technicality, progressiveness, and virtuosity at each position. Combining progressive thrash metal with elements of technical death metal, Cryptic Shifthave made one of the defining musical statements of the early 2026 listening year.

One could combine the technical fluidity of Species with the otherworldly destructive force of Blood Incantation, all while running it through a filter of Nothingface-era Voivod, and the end result would be something akin to Overspace & Supertime. But that’s barely scratching the surface.

‘Cryogenically Frozen,’ combines a fairly clean intro, packed with technical phrasing and a manic solo, with an ambient bridge that starts full of life and eventually crumbles into raw frequencies. This feeds into the first dose of blistering thrash the album delivers in abundance. Shrill riffing, employing a battery of technical moves, constantly darts into different variations, a controlled chaos of actions across the fretboard. Movement after movement, stage after stage, there is a constant influx of new riffs, leading to constantly evolving and ever challenging phrases that link into one another like some bizarre matrix. The fluidity and flow of the song is largely unbroken and unwavering. It builds to a peak, but that is not the climax of the song, the climax is the ride down from the peak. A blistering demonstration of highly skilled musicianship. The song eventually circles back to its early intense display of technical thrash and rides it out until termination.

The second track will make or break listeners easily. The staggering monstrosity of a track clocks in at just shy of half an hour in length, the warp gate of a song entitled ‘Stratocumulus Evergaol.’ A raw display of composing and execution, the song is essentially an album within an album. Psychedelic free-floating intro phrases build into a boil of stunning technical death metal, with cosmic leadwork and blasting percussive power. The song flows from sequence to sequence, bridged by intense waves of sound, with each transition comes a new experience, there is no serious repetition at play here, this is like the fractured images of a fever dream state, or the forceful waves of deep inner thought that comes with large doses of Psilocybin. This is a feat of sound wholly uncommon to any variation of extreme metal, few bands venture into this sort of territory and fewer accomplish anything meaningful. Cryptic Shift took a massive creative gamble and it paid off beautifully, listeners will be constantly rewarded with an unending nirvana of guitar riffs that intertwine and coil for nearly half an hour, without faltering.

The first half of ‘Hyperspace Topography’ is a crushing display of technical death metal that comes off with such a sense of ease but possesses such a feeling of barbarism that the listener’s thoughts can easily be swallowed by the creative depth at work. A middle section of largely cleaner guitars gives the listener some sort of a mental break before moving back into the caliginous storm of guitar and drum.

The journey through the outer darkness continues, and the listener is brought to the technical destruction of ‘Hexagonal Eyes (Diverity Trepaphymphasyzm),’ laced with transitions, featuring a quagmire of riffs, thick with effects and ambience. The lead work on display here is some of the strongest throughout Overspace & Supertime.

The title track closes the record, not at all quietly, and with just as much character as the tracks that came prior. Clocking in at just over 20 minutes in length, the termination of the record is one that is a drawn-out display of riff phrasing that reaches astronomical heights in both tonality and structure. This is the end of the sonic journey, but its substance is mighty, deep in character, entrancing, this is not something going quietly into the dark night.

The production on Overspace & Supertime is sleek, clean, and modern. The guitars, and their various stages of tone, from clean, to distorted, to layered with effects, are crisp and vibrant, taking center stage and becoming the focal point and central narrative of the entire record. Bass is punchy and deep, at times, piercing through the guitar chaos to add shades and colors to the phrasing. Drums are a dynamo of raw power, giving pulse and life to the machination crafted by the guitars, dripping with dynamics, range, and piercing clarity. Vocals aren’t overpowering and are actually kind of subtle in volume, powerful and pronounced, but nothing entirely frontal and attention-seizing.

Overspace & Supertime may seem intimidating at first, simply because of its massive size and sheer amount of spastic sonic information enclosed within, but it’s a highly rewarding listen, one that is packed with so much character that one pass through the album is not going to be enough to process the sheer density of the music. There is very little repetition at play, everything is constantly forward moving, geared for change and transition, engaged in constant changing states of tension and resolution. The concept the band sought to execute is done so brilliantly, there is no denying the narrative established throughout the record. There is nothing to misinterpret here. Even the album’s stunning artwork is devoid of anything other than the album’s central narrative, not even showing a band name or an album title, but a singular unsettling image of the organic life meeting super-organic life.

Overspace & Supertime is a quintessential demonstration of musical virtuosity, from the composing to the execution. Runtime aside, the pure fluidity the album possesses is staggering, and the amount of creative work and weight put into the record by the musicians at hand, it is something worthy of praise and respect. Cryptic Shift have made a musical statement that many others will not be able to match and have poised themselves for great things in their future.