Decapitated
Blood Mantra (Deluxe) (Nuclear Blast)Poland’s Big Three: Vader, Behemoth, Decapitated. Between them thrashes some 72 years of blackheart death metal. Triumvirate youths, that third cell emerged late last millennium as an extreme, Eastern European equivalent to Van Halen, teens Witold “Vitek” Kieltyka and his older brother Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka mathing up an unholy technical storm of thunder and lightning respectively. Decapitated V.1 expired with drum prodigy Vitek via a Belarus tour bus wreck in 2007, yet Vogg rallied back on a follow-up nearly equal to the original foursome’s phantasmagoric swan song, Organic Hallucinosis. Now, Blood Mantra spurts like hook-infested 2011 predecessor Carnival Is Forever. The latter liquefied the Poles’ left-brain technique, while the former here emulsifies Decapitated further into commercial compactness. Vogg’s guitar vortex runs circles around the competition. From the title track mosh to his fleet-fingered figures and drummer Michal Lysejko’s air raid beats ganging up on “The Blasphemous Psalm to the Dummy God Creation,” Blood Mantra grooves deep and wide. Nail-gun fusillade “Nest,” cousin to Carnival‘s “Pest,” pairs to relentless hammer “Instinct.” “When Vitek played blast beats,” recalls Vogg in the deluxe edition’s DVD, “… It was pure abracadabra.” Hocus pocus still. (Sat., 2:15pm, Midway Field House)
This article appears in October 24 • 2014.
