In the shadowy northern pocket of Fish Creek, Wisconsin—far from the touring circuits and media spotlights—lurks one of the strangest, boldest, and most unpredictable forces in extreme music: The Crypt. What began as the scorched-earth remains of a barely-remembered death metal band in the late ’90s has, over nearly three decades, become an avant-garde monolith of genreless extremity. If metal had a wandering philosopher-king, it might be Nate Yuggoth.
The Crypt’s origin is appropriately mythic. In 1997, Yuggoth’s first band, Cryptic, fizzled out after the lukewarm reception of their sole EP Angel of Cancer. Rather than walk away, Yuggoth forged ahead alone in the late-night static of busted gear and home-recorded chaos, birthing The Crypt in 1998. Early demos trickled out through the 2000s, including the now-infamous unreleased LP Victory Through Chaos. But it wasn’t until 2016—after rekindling ties with Cryptic’s former guitarist Aaron Fischer and Iranian collaborators MP and vH+—that the band released its first full-length: the dense and spiritual .V.V.V.V.V. A slab of death/thrash draped in mystical ambience, the album carved its own niche in a scene grown numb to innovation.
If .V.V.V.V.V. was the first howl from the tomb, 2018’s Враг (Vrag) refined the ritual. Still rooted in death metal, it introduced atmospheric acoustic interludes and even brought in Nocturnus legend Mike Browning for a guest vocal. But fans soon learned to expect the unexpected.
The Crypt: Fish Creek’s Best-Kept Secret Bleeds Across Metal’s Wildest Frontiers
Odal dropped like a thunderclap in 2019—no blast beats, no growls, just raw, melodic heavy metal oozing with throwback DNA. It welcomed Adam Haste on lead guitars and synths, his expressive playing a permanent addition to The Crypt’s arsenal. It also marked the end of Fischer’s tenure, though he left his fingerprints on 2020’s brooding epic Crystallized, a 13-minute death metal glacier full of progressive detours and pure vitriol.
But just when listeners thought they had a grasp on the band’s trajectory, The Crypt threw it all out the window.
2021’s Выкадиш (Vykadish) dragged metal kicking and screaming into the digital abyss, meshing vocoder-laced vocals with contributions from global beatmakers and hip-hop producers. Not content with just breaking boundaries, Yuggoth remixed the whole damn thing into 2022’s Omissão Submissão Remissão, twisting the knife into form and structure alike.
Then came the acoustic era. Embers of Limerance (2022) stripped away the distortion to reveal vulnerability beneath the decay—an album met with acclaim in local circles for its emotional depth. “Provenance,” its autumnal single, echoed the windswept grandeur of Viking-era Bathory but felt utterly born of Lake Michigan shores.
2023’s Рудий Лiс (Red Forest) was a slow-burn journey through ambient and progressive realms, featuring Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian lyrics—and a chilling theremin performance from Mike Browning. Just months later, the band snapped back with Истребитель (Exterminator), their most sonically crushing death/thrash work to date.
The following year, The Crypt’s sonic universe grew again. Throne to the Setting Sun merged 80s synthwave with metallic roots, co-written with longtime collaborator Skyler Champeau. Meanwhile, Yuggoth revisited his origins by re-recording Victory Through Chaos—a nod to youthful fury polished by decades of evolution.
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But the crown jewel of their sonic madness? That would be Lux Libera Me. Just completed, their eighth full-length is a kaleidoscopic experiment in “world metal”—ten songs in ten languages, performed by eleven different female vocalists alongside Yuggoth and Haste. It is as alien as it is ambitious, and early whispers promise an album unlike anything in metal today.
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Whether it’s harsh, heartfelt, haunting, or just plain head-scratching, The Crypt has never pandered, never plateaued. They stand as the weird beating heart of underground metal—a band who long ago stopped chasing the scene and instead became a universe unto themselves.
And in that universe? All things are permitted. All sounds are sacred. All boundaries are meant to be broken.