''Cryptic'' is the seventh full-length

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by the Swedish

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

band

Edge of Sanity Edge of Sanity was a Swedish death metal band that, alongside Opeth, is commonly regarded as being the first to fuse extreme metal styles like death and black metal with progressive rock. The group was founded by Dan Swanö in 1989 and ended in ...

, released on December 1, 1997 by

Black Mark Production Black Mark Production (founded 1991) is an independent record label originally based in Berlin, later on with offices in Stockholm, Toronto and New York City etc. Black Mark Production today is a worldwide operating business placed in Villa Ham ...

. ''Cryptic'' is the only Edge of Sanity album to not feature any contributions from

Dan Swanö Dan-Erland Swanö (born 10 March 1973), also known as Dan "The Man" Swanö, is a Swedish musician and record producer who is currently the vocalist, guitarist, ex-bassist and ex-drummer for the band Nightingale, lately vocalist, keyboardist and ...

. Guitarist Andreas Axelsson hired vocalist Robert Karlsson, who was previously the vocalist in Swanö's avant-garde death metal band Pan.Thy.Monium, in an attempt to keep the band together. Despite this, all members of this short-lived lineup of the band would depart following the album's release.

Track listing

Personnel

;Edge of Sanity * Robert Karlsson −

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

* Andreas Axelsson −

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

* Sami Nerberg − electric guitar * Anders Lindberg −

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Benny Larsson −

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

;Production * Martin Ahx - Artwork, Cover art * Susan Nerberg - Artwork, Photography * Anders Forsberg - Executive producer * Alejandro Palavecino - Photography * Peter in de Betou - Mastering * Michael Semprevivo - Layout, Typography * Ronny Lahti - Producer, Engineering, Mixing

References

1997 albums Edge of Sanity albums {{1990s-death-metal-album-stub