Nov 19, 2025 12:00 PM

Cipher System return after a long break

Cipher System kickstart new EP "Torn Between Realities".
Cipher System kickstart new EP "Torn Between Realities". (Image: Cipher System)

Melo-Death fans take note: after several years, Cipher System are finally following up their last album "Communicate the Storms", released 14 years ago, with the EP "Torn Between Realities". The Kickstarter campaign is still looking for supporters to ensure the music receives the high-quality production it deserves. And the music is certainly worth supporting.

"Cipher ... who?" some might ask. In fact, the band never really made it out of the underground scene. The band doesn't have a lot of releases to show for itself either. Yet the album "Central Tunnel 8" is considered one of the best melodic death metal albums, on par with classics by In Flames. Also based in Sweden, Cipher System plays more directly, sometimes even more playfully. The listener is constantly driven forward.

New EP "Torn Between Realities"

 YouTube Video

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New on board: Christian Älvestam

Where "Central Tunnel 8" didn't show any weaknesses in any discipline, the following "Communicate the Storms" exposed a few small weaknesses in the songwriting and yet clear weaknesses in the then new singer, who was a little too rough and aggressive and didn't really fit in with the band's sound. This makes it all the more gratifying that the band was able to recruit none other than Christian Älvestam for the new EP, one of the most gifted singers in the Melo-Death genre, and widely known and appreciated since the halcyon days of Scar Symmetry for his variable voice, which shows its embracing character especially in clean passages.

Between Cipher System and Night Crowned

The rest of the band had been letting loose with Night Crowned in recent years and had rightly made a name for themselves. Ingredients: fulminant, frenzied sound between Black Metal and Death Metal, paired with lots of melody and imaginative songwriting. Presumably, they want to take things a little easier in between with Cipher System. So there is hope that the band will manage to put the minor setback of “Communicate the Storms” behind them and return to their former glory.

Kickstarter to new heights?

The band is in the final stages of financing their new EP. Feel free to take a look and, above all, have a listen! Here is the link to the Kickstarter campaign 

If you've never heard “Central Tunnel 8,” you should do so as soon as possible.

And if you're not a fan of the band yet, you can become one here with us.

Update

The campaign to fund the EP has now successfully ended, and even the first stretch goal has been reached, adding another fifth song to “Torn Between Realities” (which they probably have yet to write).