Metal Monday: Ten Reasons Decapitated Is Probably Better Than You
posted in: Features • Rock
It’s pretty tough to find a death metal fan that doesn’t actually like Decapitated. Formed back in 1996 by brothers “Vogg” and “Vitek” Kieltyka, “Martin” Rygiel and “Sauron aka Pig” WÄ…sowicz, the band put out three fantastic death metal albums with its original lineup. Since adding new members, there have been two more albums under the Decapitated name, including the 2011 release Carnival Is Forever. For those of you who aren’t fans yet, here’s ten reasons why Decapitated are more awesome than you. If you are a fan, well, here’s ten reasons why you should continue your appreciation of this fantastic death metal band.
- Upon recording what many consider Decapitated’s best album (Winds of Creation), drummer Vitek was a mere fifteen years old. No, that’s not a joke. He had joined the band in 1996 when he was twelve years old. Think of the things you could do when you were twelve years old. Chances are that playing drums in a death metal band would not be one of those things. By the time Winds of Creation came out in 2000 on Earache records, Decapitated had already recorded two demos with Vitek behind the kit.
- Guitarist and primary songwriter Vogg went to school to study to become an accordionist. However brutal the accordion is as an instrument is, it doesn’t have anything to do with playing metal (unless you’re part of the pirate metal movement), but it does mean that Vogg knows his stuff, having spent time at Poland’s Academy of Music in Kraków.
- Decapitated wrote “Spheres of Madness” and you didn’t. Quite possibly one of the mosh-tastic song ever written, “Spheres of Madness” is five minutes and fifteen seconds of blunt metal force straight to the brain. From start to finish, everything about the song is perfectly simple and unforgiving. Almost impossible not to bang your head the instant you hear the opening riff.
- From 2000 to 2006, Decapitated released four outrageously good albums. Think about this for a second: how many metal bands do you know that can put out more than one great album? How about four? And at a pace of one every other year? What about bands who don’t put out anything that isn’t fantastic? Yeah, it’s a pretty short list (unless you’re a fanboy of a lot of bands). Such incredibly high and consistent performance is to be truly admired.
- Decapitated were churning out great and innovative death metal in a time that the death metal scene had become somewhat stale. In the early 2000s, death metal hadn’t really seen anything new or exciting happen as it was filled with the same great death metal bands from the ’90s. As noted on the band’s Wikipedia page, Decapitated’s debut album came at a crucial time for death metal and played a huge part in the development of technical death metal after it was released.
- The members of Decapitated have so much talent they need to play in more than one band. In addition to Decapitated, Vogg has guitar duties in Lux Occulta and Sceptic, and even did a stint with their legendary Polish brethren Vader. Before his passing, Vitek was pulling triple duty, drumming for Decapitated, Panzer X and Dies Irae. Like Vogg, Martin Rygiel is a member of Lux Occulta. Decapitated’s new bassist Filip “Heinrich” HaÅ‚ucha plays in Vesania, Rootwater, Masachist and Decapitated (and for a couple years, was in UnSun as well).
- Unlike many metal bands, Decapitated have never stopped evolving. Rather than sink into a particular style or form and just hang out until people stopped caring about them, each of Decapitated’s albums are a bit different and follow a rather clear evolution. Never so extreme that it doesn’t make any sense (hello, Morbid Angel), but still a clear step away from their previous work. Even on Carnival Is Forever the band still features a very familiar style for the band, but still fresh and exciting.
- After his younger brother’s passing, and being the only original member of the band, Vogg decided to continue releasing albums as Decapitated.Vitek passed on in 2007, not quite two years after the release of Organic Hallucinations. At that time, the band went on indefinite hiatus. It wasn’t until late 2009 that Vogg announced he had found the right musicians to continue the work that he and Vitek had started. In 2011 we see the finished product, and you know what, it’s pretty stinking good. Vogg has even been quoted as saying “It has been the hardest thing for me to move on without Vitek by my side, but he would have wanted me to continue with the band.”
- The drums on Carnival Is Forever were recorded live and without triggers. Again, this isn’t a joke. Hearing that a technical death metal album was recorded without drum triggers in 2011 is like hearing that someone saw the Loch Ness Monster or a unicorn”it’s just not believable. That being said, it did happen, and it came out extremely well. Krimh’s drumming on the entire album is remarkably clean.
- Just so we’re clear, they wrote “Spheres of Madness”. So what if I’m beating a dead horse? It’s “Spheres of Madness” and it will crush your soul.
Original Decapitated Lineup
2011 Decapitated Lineup
Not that you needed ten reasons outside of Decapitated’s fantastic music to become a fan of the band, but those reasons can’t hurt. You can grab Decapitated’s latest album (along with all of their other albums) from most major album retailers and around the ‘net at places such as Amazon or iTunes. Decapitated are an essential addition to any metalhead’s collection!