REVIEW: DECAPITATED 'CARNIVAL IS FOREVER' (NUCLEAR BLAST)

‘I just don’t stand on my own!’

Such is the definite statement on the eagerly awaited ‘Carnival Is Forever’: Decapitated are ‘United’ once again, and a few years after the traumatic loss of a brother and the near death of a friend, they’re neither inactive, nor a sad and empty tribute act, playing all the usual songs at all the usual festivals. With his band jolted from its coma, sole surviving original member Vogg is suffering the old pain even more dramatically, yet this same pain is his drive. Joined by three new members (now two after the recent departure of bassist Heinrich) – vocalist Rafal Piotrowski and talented young drummer Krimh, the (obviously) immortal Polish death metal institution thoroughly, precisely reinforce their uncompromising worldview, finding its most felicitous and genuinely artistic expression in the process.

Now Decapitated are nothing but wiser, more solid and undoubtedly more uncompromising.

Following this train of thought, it’s easy to understand why they return with ‘The Knife’ in their hands – a genuinely brutal, violent and in this very case, fair way to open a new page both as a team and as a collection of different personalities. Given that 2006's ‘Organic Hallucinosis’ was the band’s most evolutionary 32 minutes, proving to be one of the classics in technical, ‘Post-Organic’ extreme/death metal, ‘Carnival Is Forever’ really shouln't be as impressive. Especially when Decapitated are almost entirely new band. However, their fifth full-length is not just impressing, but it also shows some unexpected new motions, erupting here and there that always manage to keep the listener’s adrenaline at dangerous levels. The most obvious being of course the clean guitar theme that builds to album closer ‘Silence’ in its totallity. Great moments are the dark interlude, followed by an echo-ing flageolette, and one of the very best riffs of 2011 on the title-track and the absolutely dismembering attack of ‘Pest’.

While they’re cynically met by the stupid, needless, endless and whorish scepticism, Decapitated still continue to be the same bullet-proof wall of sound. This truly is their triumphant moment. Brutal and grotesque, the ‘Carnival Is Forever’!