Technical Death Metal. A musical style that is dominated by DM Giants Nile, Fellow Polish heavyweights, Behemoth, and German Fret Burners, Necrophagist. Decapitated is the least known out of the lot, yet are dominating the underground scene with their speedy licks and inhuman drumming. Formed in 1996 in Krosno, Poland, with band members average age 14, Decapitated took flight.
Sauron- Vocals
Martin- Bass Guitar
Witold "Vitek" Kiełtyka- Drums
Vogg- Guitar
Decpaitated is a band that I stumbled upon after hearing their name thrown around on another metal forum. So while looking through my “Just For You” page on itunes, I found these guys. If you are familiar with the system, Itunes suggests artists you might like based on what you have told them you own and by what you have purchased through their music store. I believe itunes told me I might like these guys because I owned Behemoth. Good Call.
Nihilty is the Sopomore album by Decapitated and has some of the freshed death metal to grace my ears since I first heard Nile’s “
Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka”. To tell you the truth, I was sick of hearing my current favorite Death Metal band at the time ( *Cough, Cough* Cannibal Corpse) put out so many lousy albums in a row, so I checked these guys out. The record starts out with
Perfect Dehumanisation. The first thing I noticed about this song was the many different rests and fills by their drummer. Not bad, but its not gonna make or break the album. The next thing I noticed was about a minute and forty-seven sconds in was the whining, technical dual guitar assault put on by their guitar player. Getting better, but still not there…and Boom. Interlude. Wow, these guys know exactly what I was sick of in death metal, and went the opposite dierction! Decapitated makes waste out of the usual Death Metal formula of intro-verse-slower intro/chorus-verse-end and gives me a intro-???-???-???-something resembling the intro-???-???-what I think might be a chorus and so on and so forth. Excellent.
So further on into the record, I got to
Spheres of Madness. Now this, by far, hands down, could be the best Death Metal Song ever, next to
Meat Hook Sodomy by Cannibal Corpse. The double bass in this song is godly and is up there with the likes Derek Roddy and Flo Mounier. The vocals are top notch and the lyrics even blow me away. “In the crown of your own self you preach darkness/Yet would you be able to obey the lack of light?” This isn’t the usual “Cut my anus with the knife of gory bloody poo-poo” stuff, but then again, this isn’t the usual Death Metal record either. 5/5, best song on the album.
[ib]Babylon’s Pride[/b] and
Symmetry of Zero are also prime cuts off this album, with the earlier have some elements of what I almost take to be maybe groove metal and the latter being the finisher and I must say it does it with the power of a
Steel Sledgehammer finishing the snitch who spilled the beans to the cops. The raw riffage and palm muted bliss combined with
Finger tapping goodness that ensues can only be captured through actually hearing it, therefore I’m not even going to try to explain it to you as I would only butcher it and possibly steer you away from the album, almost as much as you should probably steer away from this review.
My peeve about this album is simple, yet a killer in Death Metal records. It is that in the middle of this album, there are some tracks that just don’t cut it. They’re kind of like the leftovers that you know are in the fridge, yet you don’t want to look because you know they will be rotten. Tracks such as
Mother War and the title track just don’t impale you like the others do. They just barely break skin. Yet, that is why God invented the Fast-foreword button on your CD player or Ipod, so that you do not have to get a whiff of the leftovers rotten’ to high hell in the back of the refrigerator next to the ketchup.
Decapitated’s second album is truly a great one. They made their entire career shine with this album. Now, if you want too watch that shine go to a dull tint, you can go to their latest album but for now we’ll stick here.
Recommended Tracks:
Sphere of Madness
Babylon’s Pride
Symmetry of Zero
Perfect Dehumanisation (The Answer)
Pros[+]:
Top of the line musicianship
Ridiculous on everything having to do with production
Just for the most part great songs, man. Isn’t that what really makes an album?
Cons[-]:
Couple sucky cuts
Latter half of the album was better than the first
