Seeing as how this is Decapitated 2.0, I don't feel bad for not having heard Organic Hallucinosis. With that said I'm very excited to have acquired a new batch of Decapitated songs. Carnival is Forever is the band's post Vitek offering, as it might as well be post-'anything resembling the original lineup'. Much like Vader, it has become sole original member Vogg's one man show with all brand new faces (hopefully not the first of a rotating door of hired guns). Fortunately, like Vader, Vogg has maintained a consistency in the bands sound. So while tere are a bunch of new faces, it still sounds like Decapitated.
The album's opener, 'The Knife', has an angular, Meshuggah circa Chaosphere feel. Think the more thrashy parts from The Negotiation, just more jagged. It shows Vogg's desire to try something new but stay within some kind of familiar boundary. Nonetheless it's a welcome opener.
Any doubt fans would have about new drummer, Krimh, should rest easy. While the new guy brings a slightly more straight ahead style, Vogg's song writing prowess keeps him in check. Much like Les Claypool, you can't play around Vogg. He forces you to react to his axe shredding without cutting corners. You have to keep up with him, you have no choice.
'Homo Sum' comes as the first real standout track as the band dives into more melodic waters while trying to somewhat recreated a rhythm pattern similar to 'Spheres of Madness'. 'View From a Hole' showcases the bands more blatant attempts with spacey/prog parts, but promptly pulls you back into the pummeling death.
The album's closer, 'Silence', serves as a calm from the ensuing madness. An homage to Vogg's fallen bandmate. Very touching, a bit out of place, but a good song for closure.
Vocalist Rafal Piotrowski seems to stand out the most as he does not possess a traditional growl but a more Piotr Wiwczarek/Vader rasp that, when played over the music, almost changes to outcome of the music. While not horrible, the vocals are a slight deterrent to the music's higher caliber.
Overall Decapitated's return is a relative success. While Vogg and crew seem to play it safe with the new ideas, it could suggest new sounds to come.
I feel bad for spreading gossip. I feel bad for going out of my way to talk shit or make fun of public figures, sometimes. Sometimes, however, people are just begging for it. Let's take Lars Ulrich of Metallica, for example. Since the Napster days Ulrich has become more of a punching bag the more he makes public appearances on behalf of himself or the band. Everyone loves to make a jab at him for reasons good and bad. I won't defend nor feast on his P.R. decisions, but sometimes things come along and you merely want to ask, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"
In A recent interview posted on Blabbermouth.net (which can be read here) Lars talks with Classic Rock magazine about the band and what could be their most controversial release, St. Anger. The album serves as enigma to most fans. Why? is a commonly asked question in regards to this period in the band's career. A movie, Some Kind Of Monster, was released and could possibly give fans some leads, along with countless interviews.
What puzzles me the most about the interview is this particular passage:
Classic Rock: Is it fair to say "St. Anger" is your worst album?
Lars: I think it's fair to say that some people think that.
Classic Rock: Would you agree with them?
Lars: I can't. The way I view the world, I can't rank them from best to worst. That kind of simplicity just doesn't exist for me. If I was 14, I could probably do it. Now, the way I see the world is nothing but greys, mainly.
According to Lars, he has no favorites. His age, his wisdom has allowed an inability to rank Metallica albums. Now I understand that bands remember their albums much differently than their fans, and his comment does not regard the importance of individual albums, per se. It would appear as if Mr. Ulrich's grey vision levels the playing field for all his musical efforts. That is to say, by using the logic from the afore mentioned passage, Mr. Ulrich sees no difference betwen St. Anger and Master of Puppets. Of couse I'm sure he could refute that easily and say his words were taken out of context. It's not juvenile to ranks albums if there are clear examples of a band's best efforts, and we can all agree, experiment or not, that Metallica has made better albums than St. Anger. The above comments come off as condescending than a diss to the mob of '14 yeard olds'. It's potentially immature and juvenile to rank things, but in the case Metallica's catalogue, it's pretty clear that there is a hierarchy in regards to quality. Your earlier material brought you fame and fortune. Your later material brought you fortune due to your longevity and established fan base. (I even bought St. Anger, and promptly traded it in for store credit)
Now I know Mr. Ulrich will not come across my writings anytime soon (unless he turns out to be a totally über-narcissist who google searches his name ever day to see what people think of him), but I have this one piece of advice, which you probably know already. Being in Metallica, you will likely come out victorious as even your biggest critics are some of your biggest fans. But as your albums, your achievements, are displays of your personal experiences, those albums do the same for us.
To further prove my point, I conclude a viral video making fun of St. Anger. The snare drum is replaced with a steel folding chair.
Origin's musical ability has been top tier since day one. Every album has managed to outdo it's predecessor. To make an album better than Antithesis is no mere task. So how does a band that has set the bar for tech-death achieve new heights? The band's answer to this question is rather interesting.
Origin almost takes a "two steps forward, one step back" approach to their new album, and Nuclear Blast debut, Entity. Allow me to put an emphasis on the "one step back" part. To question how a sound so unique, so high caliber could advance, evolve could reach further limits. How Paul Ryan came up with the music that Origin plays alone sometimes is an anomolly. On Entity, Origin decends from the heavens and takes on the kind of death metal that other people play. Yes, they wrote parts that almost (gasp) sound like more 'straight forward' bands (But can Origin ever truly be considered straight forward). Instead of shredding in a way the band only knows how, they incorporate parts they seem to have passed through during, maybe, the first Origin practice ever. I'm talking break downs (that still sound better than any core band to date), Nile-esque guitar solos (what? No raking arpeggios?). But doubters, do not fret. Anything seemingly 'less than Origin' caliber has their sound dancing all over it. C'mon, do you really expect the band play anything normal? While this album in large parts more straight forward, the band's technical prowess still dominates. The band's decision to bring it down (to earth) works really well. Hearing human drum-machine John Longstrength play anything other than mind bending blast beats and otherwise (one trick pony?) makes this not just another Origin album, and potentially menoutenous but more diverse. There's still plenty of the band's signature sound all over this album, but trying new things has definitely paid off for this band. This is a band that has been relatively so ahead of the curve for them to retrace their steps and put their mark on the things other bands have been doing for a while now is amazing. And the fact that this album is going to be played live as a four piece (only one guitar) will surely be nothing short of mind boggling.
