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IMR: So coming onto the inception of the band, CRYPTED started-off as a Thrash Metal band and today you guys have been recognized as a ground-breaking Progressive Death Metal band with alterations in the line-up, could you please tell us something in these regards?
Siva(Crypted): Yes, we started out as a Thrash Metal band, totally influenced by SLAYER and MEGADETH, but then we started listening to more technical and more progressive bands like OPETH and some Brutal bands like NILE, DECAPITATED etc. So, as our influences grew, we kind of evolved with that and decided we could use a change in Line-up because we felt it would help the band play much more technical stuff. Arvind who was playing Bass, shifted to playing Guitars as he was capable of making awesome riffs, Avinash who was on Guitars took up Bass and I,(Siva) Joined for vocals.

IMR: Tell us about the members of CRYPTED. Who are they and what bands were they in or anything interesting we would want to know?
Siva(Crypted): CRYPTED, about three years back was called GUN POWDER. Arvind and Avinash formed the band with Abhinandhan on Drums. After a while when Crypted was under formation, The Line up took in Vishnu on drums and Kannan Jayaram on Guitars alongside Avinash and Arvind was on bass/vocals. That was the first Thrash metal playing CRYPTED. I was a long time fan and friend for the Crypted members being there in every one of their shows. As I mentioned, influences changed and after KJ decided to take a break, CRYPTED changed its Line up to Arvind(guitars), Avinash(bass), Vishnu(drums), Siva(Vocals).
Recently we took in V.G.Pranav as our second guitarist, another friend of CRYPTED. (off the record: arvind left to the U.S for studies, so now Pranav is our main guitarist, and as Avinash is also leaving to US in September, we’re looking for a new bassy)

IMR: CRYPTED falls more into a Death Metal genre. What message do you try to get out to the metal heads through your lyrical content?
Siva(Crypted): There is this certain stereotype that death metal is about anti-religious themes and stuff, we in CRYPTED think that’s *******. For EQUILIBRIUM, we took up the concept of Lord Shiva portraying him as the “lord of destruction”. We never planned for the EP to fall under a concept, then again, each song had a connection and we were able to relate each other. In the EP, the lyrics are based upon the cycle of a man’s Life and how he is subjected to destruction once he is being found unworthy of living. HELD by CHAINS is about a man who is questioning God’s authority as he doesn’t understand why things are the way they are. EQUILIBRIUM is about Lord Shiva and how destruction is the key to maintaining EQUILIBRIUM in the living world. FLESH EATER is about the ardent devotees of Lord Shiva, the Aghoris.
Then again, as we’ve said before, we don’t want to be seen as a Hindu mythology band. We strongly believe that the music is different from the theme. In the future, we will be working with the same Progressive Death music, but with some other theme.

IMR: Could you tell us about the major influences that helped CRYPTED to up bring themselves during all these years and also on the debut E.P release?
Siva(Crypted): Initially, CRYPTED was a total Thrash Metal influenced band. In fact, CRYPTED covered bands like SLAYER, MEGADETH, and KREATOR. Arvind was a big time Chuck Schuldiner fan, and that influence was felt in CRYPTED pretty soon, as the song writing was seen to be very much influenced by Chuck’s style, and also CRYPTED covered death songs like SPIRIT CRUSHER and CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN.
After the major change in Lineup took place, we decided to challenge ourselves to more complex bands. Listening to bands like NILE, OPETH, GOROD, DECAPITATED, MESHUGGAH, GOJIRA, NECROPHAGIST we started finding traces of influences from all these bands in our music. We also covered SPHERES OF MADNESS by DECAPITATED and BACKBONE AND REMEMBRANCE by GOJIRA. MASTER’S APPRENTICE by OPETH being our favorite. Sound check song.

IMR: How did you guys approach the songwriting for the record? Did all the members took part in the song composing or was it a solo effort by any of the band individual? Can you give us details regarding the release for our readers?
Siva(Crypted): The songs were actually made before we had plans to record. So, we didn’t spend much of studio time thinking of what to do for the next song. Arvind had a major part to play in the songwriting department. The way CRYPTED writes a song is pretty unorthodox I think. Arvind would come up with a set of riffs and lay them out to us, we would suggest something and he’ll incorporate them in the song. Vishnu would come up with drum patterns, or show Arvind some patterns he already had in mind and Arvind would write riffs over it. Avinash would discuss with Arvind and finalize his bass lines, the lyrics is the last part of the song. We would jam the song without vocals for a few weeks, I would try to come up with a vocal line singing random stuff without lyrics as they are playing the song. Me and Arvind would decide on a theme and after the vocal line is done, I would write lyrics. That’s pretty much how we write a song.
And finally when we thought of recording, we had Siddharth Nair(BLIND IMAGE) in range and he was happy to record us. After a couple of months of Retakes and re-runs and mixing and mastering, the songs were finally done.

IMR: How did the recording sessions go as a whole for EQUILIBRIUM (E.P)? Was it your first studio experience in anyways, anything you would like to share with the readers?
Siva(Crypted): Yes, it was our first recording experience. It was pretty unorthodox too, then again, the sessions were insanely fun and chilled out. Siddarth Nair was thankfully really patient with us and sat through the sessions. After completing each song, we knew that it was going exactly the way we wanted it to and it gave us a lot of confidence to proceed to the next song.

IMR: On a personal note, for how long have you been involved into the metal realm and how did you get involved into it? What did you find so exciting in this music?
Siva(Crypted): All the members have been involved in the Chennai metal scene for quite some time now. Reasons are pretty different I guess. What is here in this music that’s not exciting? For every metal fan, there’s this one moment of Ultimate Metal madness within, that one point where they turn metal for the rest of their life. That Passion drove us all too where we are I guess. Most of our college circle is complete out of the metal scene, but still, no one cares if people around find it “uncool” to listen to metal, we don’t care if “that hot chick” likes Hip-hop. We “true” metal fans aren’t posers, we love metal and we don’t care what the world has to say about that.

IMR: What would you say is the most intense live show you guys have ever played till today?
We a few to name I guess, fresh in memory,
1.) Unseen Underground’s Pub Fest on New Year’s Eve.
2.) RAW POWER @ the Accord Metropolitan, Chennai. (The CRYPTED crowd broke the Pub’s Drink stand, literally.)
3.) CMC Vellore, when we went for PEAGUSUS’10, awesome crowd and friendly people.
4.) CRYPTED’s EP launch, that was our night and we had amazing fun with the dramatic entry with BGM and smoke and everything. It was INSANE.

IMR: Do you think nowadays there is any rarity item left for the Death Metal bands to highlight themselves to be creative in the music stream?
Siva(Crypted): As Long as we can Imagine and think Creatively, I think there is always something new that we can throw to the audience. There is a huge section of themes and songwriting styles that we can still move into and ponder on.

IMR: Would you agree with me, if I say that Sweden has been a home for the Death Metal movement over the years?
Siva(Crypted): Personally, YES! And I’m sure my fellow band mates would agree. OPETH being the highlight. Also bands like BLOODBATH, THEORY IN PRACTISE etc. There have been awesome Polish bands like BEHEMOTH, VADER, DECAPITATED etc. Even American bands like NILE and CANNIBAL CORPSE and Germans like NECROPHAGIST and OBSCURA.

IMR: Siva, thanks a lot for your answers, anything to add, what I forgot to mention?
Siva(Crypted): Nothing much I guess. I had loads of fun answering the questions too. Well, to add in the End,