Date Signed: June 2024
Label: Season of Mist
Band Members: Flo Mounier, drums; Matt McGachy, vocals; Christian Donaldson, guitar; Oli Pinard, bass
Type of Music: Death metal
Booking: U.S.: Continental Touring (continentaltouring.us), Europe: The Flaming Arts (theflamingarts.edu)
Publicity: U.S.: Will Yarbrough ([email protected]), Europe: Sébastien Gamez ([email protected])
Web: season-of-mist.com/bands/cryptopsy
A&R: Michael Berberian
For Montreal’s Cryptopsy, technical precision isn’t just a form of art. It’s the approach they take to business as well. So, when searching for a new record label following the release of last year’s acclaimed As Gomorrah Burns, the 37-year-old quartet led by unparalleled drummer Flo Mounier tactfully selected Season of Mist. Why? Because the label had already proven its adeptness in targeted planning and strategy when it handled two releases by Mounier’s side project Vltimas, including this year’s Epic.
“Flo is adamant about working with Season of Mist—with [founder] Michael [S. Berberian] in particular, and [North American Label Manager] Gordon [Conrad],” Cryptopsy vocalist Matt McGachy told Music Connection in mid-July. “He really, really trusts their business vision and how they've handled the Vltimas releases and the deal that they got. He was extremely adamant about pushing for [Cryptopsy joining that label].
“Conversations happened extremely quickly,” McGachy continued. “We were in Germany [and] had a meeting with Michael over the phone. By the time we came home, we had deal memos.”
With social media and new technology essentially taking control of the music industry, the band couldn’t devote the time to appease the Svengali that is The Algorithm.
The self-managed Cryptopsy represented themselves when signing their contract with Season of Mist, the label’s U.S. publicist, Will Yarbrough, noted. McGachy revealed that he has a “concrete plan” for the next five or six years of the band, which also features guitarist Christian Donaldson and bassist Olivier Pinard.
“I’m hoping that that helps launch everything into the stratosphere,” he said.
