Crypta have released “A Portrait of Decay,” their first new song since the Shades of Sorrow cycle and their first studio recording with Victoria Villarreal, who officially joined as guitarist in April. Alongside Fernanda Lira, Luana Dametto and Tainá Bergamaschi, Villarreal completes the lineup currently working on the Brazilian band's new material.
The song retains the force of Crypta's death metal while building a darker, more melancholic atmosphere around lyrics dealing with dissociation as a way of enduring pain and suffering. The band have not yet announced a new album or identified the single as part of a specific record, so “A Portrait of Decay” currently stands as the first indication of what they are developing after spending three years around Shades of Sorrow.
The track was recorded in Belgium in June 2026. Yarne Heylen handled engineering, mixing and mastering at Project Zero Studio, while Brazilian artist Marcos Miller created the artwork.
Its music video is based on a concept written by Luana Dametto and deliberately avoids matching the song's violence with equally aggressive imagery. Instead, it begins in a bright, ethereal and almost dreamlike landscape that gradually changes as night falls. According to the drummer, that transition represents how surroundings and the passage of time can alter someone's perception of themselves until feelings of disorientation and isolation begin to take over.
“A Portrait of Decay” is available digitally and will also receive a strictly limited 7-inch vinyl edition through Napalm Records.
Crypta will take this material on the road when their North American tour begins October 5 in Riverside, California. The run features Arch Enemy and The Black Dahlia Murder at the top of the bill, alongside Septicflesh, Crypta and Thrown Into Exile, and continues across the United States and Canada through October and November.
Formed in 2019 by Fernanda Lira and Luana Dametto following their departure from Nervosa, Crypta released Echoes of the Soul in 2021 and Shades of Sorrow in August 2023. Their most recent shows formally closed the cycle surrounding that second album; “A Portrait of Decay” is the first music the band have presented since that chapter ended.
