Decapitated – Carnival Is Forever

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Nuclear Blast
Produced by Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka & Daniel Bergstrand

By their very nature, Decapitated are a band who can’t stay doing one thing for very long. The body of work the band had produced up until the death of founding member Witold ‘Vitek’ Kiełtyka had continually evolved. Where Winds of Creation was pure, classic death metal, the band’s total lack of complacency would see them change over Nihility and The Negation, to a much more progressive beast on ’06′s Organic Hallucinosis. With singer Adrian ‘Covan’ Kowanek also sustaining critical injuries from the crash that took Vitek’s life, change for Decapitated was inevitable, if the band were to continue at all.

The present day incarnation of Decapitated continues with only its founder, Wacław ‘Vogg’ Kiełtyka, from the last incarnation of the band. The change of personnel, as well as Vogg’s tendency to steer clear of stagnation, has resulted in a very different album, even from Organic Hallucinosis. Carnival Is Forever may not even be strictly death metal, pooling together many diverse influences to form a very different kind of extreme metal album.

There are two bands that could be considered an influence to the current sound on Carnival Is Forever. The first, and the most obvious, is Meshuggah. The common sound on this album consists of long, chuggy, grinding guitars that just repeat over and over much like Meshuggah use, often to a difficult pattern. The result is a very cold and mechanical sound, though this also comes at the expense of much less lead guitar. The second influence is Sepultura, with Decapitated borrowing the band’s mid-90s groove on occasion, subtly using it in some of their rhythms. This is especially noticeable on the very groovy 404. Decapitated don’t necessarily sound like they are ripping off or directly taking from either of these bands, but their sound can be easily compared to both. The band’s strong use of dynamic shifts (such as switching to a sole clean guitar on the album’s title track, or the entire opening for A View From A Hole) continues to prove that most of all, Decapitated are an intelligent and progressive band, regardless of what genre people choose to place them in.

New singer Rafał “Rasta” Piotrowski foregoes the traditional death growling style, and follows former singer Covan to more gruffly shout. However whilst Covan’s delivery was extremely close to that of Justin Broadrick of Godflesh, Rasta’s delivery is perhaps less specialised and less forceful. Combined with a noticeably less loud and brutal guitar sound, the album does sound noticeably softer (if such a term can be applicable to an extreme metal record). Whilst Organic Hallucinosis was very progressive, it never felt less heavy as a consequence. It was very interesting, but still incredibly heavy; in comparison, Carnival Is Forever is merely the former, just being heavy enough to warrant the extreme metal tag. That to an extent is fine, it is still a collection of very strong songs regardless, but it is difficult to accept it as a better album than its predecessor for these reasons.

So with that in mind, it is entirely understandable for some older fans to feel alienated by Decapitated’s continued shift away from their original sound, but the end result still makes for an interesting and progressive sounding metal album. It stands as a great tribute to Vitek, especially given the album features some of the last material he would write for the band. Decapitated might be changing, and changing to the point that they are barely recognizable when compared to what they have been over the last ten years. We’ll see if they can still remain interesting as their sound progresses. For now, Carnival Is Forever will certainly do.

“ intelligent and progressive ”

Tracklist: The Knife / United / Carnival Is Forever / Homo Sum / 404 / A View From A Hole / Pest / Silence

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Albums, Death Metal, Decapitated