Review Summary: Sorry, but what is this album title?!
Decapitated’s 8th studio album,
Cancer Culture, subtly contains themes of cancel culture which is certainly an important issue, especially after the bands false kidnapping and rape accusations that got them temporarily cancelled. If any band could tackle this subject, it should be Decapitated considering their experience with cancel culture. However, on the title track, the band fails to do this. The lyrics on
Cancer Culture are just plain awful. Not only are they cringey but they also fail at making a nuanced and an original take on the subject. Instead the track ends up being more of a mindless rant rather than anything interesting. The lyrics don't fare much better on
No Cure either. This song talks about conspiracies such as the flat earth that are spread through the internet which again, are important topics but the lyrics are just painful to read. For example, “Raised by Memes and Pop-Ups” and “4chan University graduates, Experts in funny pictures and cats”.
What Decapitated truly excel at here is their riff writing. They know how to write a groovy and heavy riff and they never failed to do so throughout the runtime. It is what sells the album for me.
Suicidal Space Programme holds the albums grooviest and harshest riffs that make this song an obvious highlight on the record. Another track with strong and dissonant riffage is the brief, yet concise minute long
Locked. The song
Just a Cigarette is a high point as well with it’s groovy guitar work and some lyrics that are actually pretty decent. While
Cancer Culture is definitely far from perfect, it undeniably holds a great solo with a well written melody.
Last Supper is where the solo work truly shines through with a notable melodic lead that begins in the half way mark and lasts till the final 30 seconds. Despite the fact that
Cancer Culture is lyrically weak, they did not hold back in the instrument department. Even on the worst songs, the drums, guitars and bass still sound solid and shows the bands talent.
Hello Death features Tatiana Shmailyuk of Jinjer fame. Her inclusion mostly feels like an afterthought as her vocals seem randomly placed throughout the song. However, her vocal work is stellar and she adds a lot of energy to the climax of the song even though it doesn’t seem totally necessary at first.
Cancer Culture suffers from a good portion of the album being rather generic. Not many moments stick with you as the albums sound is similar to what many other bands are also doing. There is little new on this record so don’t go into it expecting something entirely original.
Overall,
Cancer Culture is a decent effort with all around, very skilful musicianship, particularly with their riff writing. Despite this, the albums enjoyability slightly decays due to it’s inconsistent lyric writing that ranges from rather alright to downright embarrassing and the lack of any truly memorable moment despite the band being extremely technically proficient. It is certainly listenable with a few solid songs but it is nothing mind blowing. If you enjoy groove and death metal, you will absolutely find something in this album to appreciate but there is stronger material else where.
