Young bluegrass beast Billy Strings is a particular type of shredder, and he sometimes indulges his taste in a very different type of shredding. Before he found jammy roots-music stardom, Strings played with the Michigan metal bands Groove Tongue and To Once Darkened Skies. Last year, he joined the Grand Rapids band Flesh And Blood Robot onstage at their reunion show. Now, we get to hear what happens when he plays a solo for tech-death legends Cryptopsy.
On Friday, Season Of Mist will release a 30th-anniversary reissue of Cryptopsy's 1994 debut Blasphemy Made Flesh. In addition to various other bonus tracks, that reissue include "Blasphemy Made Fresh," an eight-minute medley of re-recorded album tracks that features members of Undeath, Shadow Of Intent, Stabbing, Carcosa, and Emasculator. Right around the seven-minute mark, it's also got Billy Strings playing the solo from the song "Open Face Surgery."
As Live For Live Music points out, Billy Strings is a longtime vocal Cryptopsy fan. When he and the band happened to play Boise on the same night a few years ago, he sent them a cake with "Open Cake Surgery" written on it. Strings commented on Cryptopsy's Instagram post about "Blasphemy Made Fresh," calling it "such a fucking honor." On his own Instagram, he says, "It was such a huge honor for me to add this guitar solo to this insane medley by my favorite death metal band @cryptopsyofficial .. this is like a dream come true for me and I want to thank the band for having me on it. Blasphemy made fresh!! Had to pull out the ol’ Ibanez RG570 for this one." Check it out below.
The 30th-anniversary version of Blasphemy Made Flesh is out 7/18 on Season Of Mist.
