YOUR ESSENTIAL BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO DECAPITATED

WAY TO SALVATION

(Winds Of Creation, 2000)

The only track from Decapitated’s first demo to make it through to their debut album, Way To Salvation confirmed that Vogg and Vitek were extraordinary musicians at a startlingly young age. A churning storm of state-of-theart death metal, it ticked all the old school boxes while hinting at the game-changing brilliance to come.

SPHERES OF MADNESS

(Nihility, 2002)

Effectively Decapitated’s greatest hit (“It’s our Smoke On The Water!” declares Rasta), Spheres… begins with a riff so simple, effective and groovy that you’d have to genuinely, actively despise heavy metal to resist its charms. If you’ve ever been in the pit at a Decap show when this one kicks off, you’ll have bruises to prove it.

THE NEGATION

(The Negation, 2004)

Early evidence of the genre-smashing intuition that has since turned them into underground legends, The Negation is one of Decapitated’s heaviest and slowest tracks, with a churning, pitch-black riff that sounds like the grind of tectonic plates and some wildly psychedelic soloing from Vogg.

21st-century death metal redefined.

DAY 69

(Organic Hallucinosis, 2006)

Second only to Spheres Of Madness in Decapitated’s hit list, Day 69 marked a great leap forward for the Poles’ sound. Vitek’s drumming is truly mindblowing throughout, not least during his brief mid-song solo, and Vogg’s riffs are an object lesson in how to make extreme metal swing like a mammoth’s ballbag. A modern metal masterpiece.

THE KNIFE

(Carnival Is Forever, 2011)

Could Decapitated survive with a new line-up, with the shadow of Vitek’s death looming? The answer, as this first track from comeback album Carnival Is Forever proves, was a resounding yes. Exploding into life in a flurry of juddering riffs and Rasta’s gargled roar, The Knife showed that Decapitated had plenty left to offer.

They couldn’t have paid their fallen brother a better tribute.

BLINDNESS

(Blood Mantra, 2014)

A world away from the death metal purity of their early works, this mesmerising epic from 2014’s Blood Mantra album hammers home how far Decapitated have come. As likely to lure in fans of Gojira and Meshuggah as it would underground diehards, it’s a densely atmospheric downward spiral into oblivion that once again confirms what a clever, talented bastard Vogg is.

NEVER

(Anticult, 2017)

Kindly showing that Decapitated fully intend to continue their sensible habit of being one of the best bands in metal today, Never is an absolute shredfest. Managing to squeeze some deceptively catchy melodies into a six-minute explosion of fret-searing intensity and drum-popping percussion, the lead track from Anticult highlights why the Poles are as at home at Brixton Academy as they once were slogging away in toilet venues across Europe. Welcome back, boys.