This Will Make You Run Through Walls
As far as the more extreme side of Metal is concerned, there has already been the album of the year. Behemoth's The Satanist released earlier this year has raised the benchmark higher than many could have imagined, but with Blood Mantra Decapitated have produced a record which is not far behind at all. It's savagely intense and brutally delivered. The band themselves have been around for a long time and have overcome some truly tragic circumstances, but putting this new record in context with their previous offerings, it's their best.
Opening track Exiled In Flesh sets the tone as you'll immediately feel that they're onto something special here. The tightness of the band is phenomenal, with new drummer Michal Lysejko seemingly out to pay back his recent addition into the band with an absolutely storming performance. Decapitated have always been one of the masters in delivering an extreme level of aggression in a fantastically measured way. The Blasphemous Psalm To The Dummy God Creation is the epitome of this, with two and a half minutes of complete chaos. One of the absolute highlights on the album, Veins sees the band integrate several gear changes, making the whole piece sound like a Gojira track on speed. You'll feel like you could literally run through walls when it blasts out of the speakers. One of the most interesting tracks on the album, is also the longest one on there. The seven minute Blindness feels like it is neurotically building to an epic climax which it never quite reaches, but there is a brilliant level of suspense. The closing Red Sun straight after that is an atmospheric piece as if to wind everything down again after the onslaught.
Another key aspect to Blood Mantra is the fact that the band haven't looked to be too elaborate and overwhelm the listener, keeping the album a tight and concise beast at eight tracks and around 40 minutes long. Some of the riffs are eye wateringly heavy, and all of the technical prowess is there as this album promises to push Decapitated into territory higher than they've ever been before. The tour at the end of the year with Behemoth sees a combination of bands who have by far and away written the best two Death Metal records of the year. Absolutely not one to miss.