WARNING: TERRIBLE AGGRESSION METAPHORS AHEAD
Prepare yourself for the inevitable onslaught of Polish death metal. Decapitated are back with part IV of their imposing evolution. Armed with Covan, a new volunteer willing to sacrifice his throat for the purpose of extreme metal, the band has produced what is undoubtedly their most distinctive record to date.
Organic Hallucinosis brings together Decapitated’s paramount intensity to create a dominant, devastating fusion of methodological musicianship, unforgettable song crafting, and undiluted Polish vehemence. When euphoria has been reached, leave it to the Slavic descendants of history’s most murderous figures to bring one crashing down to a cold new reality. Welcome to the new dominion.
When the restraints are hesitantly removed, the beast awakens with a thirst for blood and divine consummation. Decapitated’s IVth is like an aural sledgehammer. It comes fast, and once it starts, either flee the scene or feel the pain. Delivered largely by the production,
Organic Hallucinosis has the most immaculate recording of their unconstrained four. Every note, every lyric line, and every cymbal strike comes through sharp and strong. Because of this, Vitek’s drums sound particularly brutal. Cunt-smashing double bass and virgin-raping blast beats drive the steamroller like sound forward at an ungodly rate (pink, fluffy ear muffs are recommended for those not accustomed to anything more brutal than George Michael). After the percussive carnage is delivered in the form of
Day 69’s cannon like assault, the guitars sound thicker than stew boiled from fecal matter. Imagine self-mixed concrete without sufficient water – then you’ll have nearly half of the thickness Vogg’s riffsanity, displayed sadistically in
Post(?) Organic. Top it all off with the limb-lashing voice of the newly acquired larynx-wrecker Covan, and we have ourselves a volatile concoction of defiled audio debris.
The album’s strength is plain and simple – the riffs. Vogg has truly mastered his trade after nearly a decade of corpse producing exertion. Listening to the bloodletting axe wielding of
Poem About an Old Prison Man or
Visual Delusion may make orphans of your children. Catchiness and ambience are delivered in
Visual Delusion, displaying one of the many ways that they have added substance to pure insanity. Although the album only lasts for seven songs and 32 minutes, it is not hard to find time to bang your head to the unyielding riff battering. Vogg has once again outdone himself in the field of soloing. After the psychotic life pinching, rolling, memorable riffs of
Flash-B(l)ack, some of death metal’s most chaotic guitar mincing is shaped via
Invisible Control.
However, while Decapitated have improved in the songwriting morgue…uh, department, Covan is not the asset that onlookers may have perceived. Quite brutally, this man does not belong in death metal. Drop the needle onto any portion of vocalized music and you’ll find an angry Pollock grunting as though he was destined to be in a hardcore band. Not much can be said about his contributions, because his work is rather one-dimensional. All that is certain is that he brings the music down considerably, especially following the exceptional performance of his physically maiming predecessor Sauron.
Despite obvious negative opinions on
Organic Hallucinosis, the album constructs one simple positive contention to combat its one glaring flaw. One the one bleeding hand, we have the mindslaying, genital-grinding riffs. On the other emaciated limb, we have Covan’s horribly misplaced throat. While the latter proves to be major hindrance, it’s not difficult to become adapted to his shout and proceed to notice the articulate riffs and instrumental work beneath him. Decapitated IV may only have two noticeable traits, but it levels out to appear as a fierce storm of strangely agreeable array of technical madness and spinef
ucking brutality. Rest in peace.
Recommended listening:
- Poem About an Old Prison Man
- Post(?) Organic
- Flash-B(l)ack
Pros include:
- Viciously pummeling riffs entwined with intense solos and a twisted catchiness
Cons include:
- Terrible vocals and the album is just too damn short
