Decapitated - "Nihility" [Earache]

Since the fall of the Iron Curatin (and at times even before it) the East-European Extreme Metal scene has proven to be, in quality terms, one of the world leaders. Mastering numerous styles, almost by a geographical division, it seems that every nation has a peculiar genre in which it specializes, creating a developed local scene featuring unbelieveable sequences of brilliant bands : good examples would be , the famous Moravian Doom scene or the flourishing Polish Brutal Death Metal one. Still, I believe that in spite of that dichotomy, there are some common elements which appear in most of the Eastern block band’s creations, mostly noticable in the compositional and instrumental arrangement approaches, containing rather similar methods of the rhythmical and harmonical developments of a stated musical motive. Furthermore, a relatively vast amonut of guitarists from the area occassionally make use of similarly sounding Jazz-tinged licks , giving their output a charachteristic typical flavour.

The aforementioned phenomenon may be clearly regonized on Polish Decapitated’s recent album. Playing a brand of Brutal, awesomely-Technical Death Metal which most likely makes an attempt to ride on the enormous wave of mentor Vader’s fame, they feature the described typical East European attributes, bestowing their album with a notable local tint. Nevertheless, the band never implements these in an expected, routine manner, which might probably be viewed among lesser bands of the area, but apply a creative, original mind, to render this album a diverse, surprising, multi-chromatic listening experience: most of the compositions throw the listener into a boisterous torrent in a river of flowing riffs, eroding him towards boundless seas of brief, slippery guitar harmonic combinations, aggressive technical drum movements and innovative lead guitar work shifting from short quasi-Jazz licks to an ascendant oriental Minor-Harmonic soaring, all performed in an amazing fashion, considering the complexion of the material and the band member;s disallowance of the slightest mistake, sacredly sticking to the given beat and count. the seldom cases in which the compositions seem to be over-deconstructed, not giving the listener a single lug to hold on to, or the lack of any specific memorable track, don’t prevent this release of being yet another post-communistic brilliant metal effort. Recommended!

7.5/10

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