Decapitated - Carnival Is Forever [2011]

Jesus fuck... "The Knife" has one of the most confusing verse riffs I've ever heard. Unfortunately, it's much less Death Metal and more like Swedish Thrash. Not a fan of the Soilwork-wannabe vocals either. Though, his high-screams are quite good. Another confusingly difficult and technical energy bomb can be found in "United". Towards the end of "United" it actually starts to feel like a Decapitated song. Hey hey! Very Decapitated riffage in "Carnival Is Forever". Oddly enough, the vocals seem to inch themselves more towards Death Metal as the album progresses. "404" flexes more of the creative muscles with crazy squeals that sound like they should never come from a guitar. Well, there's no argument at all that this is a very technical album. It's also very high-energy. I like the fact that they didn't just repeat what they had tried before. However, it just doesn't feel like Decapitated and the vocals really push the songs away from Death Metal for me. It's also lacking in the blast-beat department... a lot. Perhaps I'm being to harsh, after all, Decapitated has never put out an album that sounded like the preceding one. Maybe I just need to warm up to this one like I did with Organic Hallucinosis. Must listen to it a few times before I actually give it a rating. Once I get past the vocals and general replacement of blasting with thrashing, this is a very good album that has a lot of brutality and energy. It just takes a while to get accustomed to it.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

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Decapitated - Organic Hallucinosis [2006]

One hell of a first track. Brutal, fast, technical, and catchy. The different vocalist takes some getting used to, but his style works for the music and he's quite versatile. Things continue on the brutality path with "Day 69". "Revelation of Existence" really drives home the fact that trying to predict what these guys will do next is fruitless. They've really perfected the songwriting on this album. Even the slow parts are really heavy and catchy... never feeling like they drag. All of the songs on this album are extremely strong. By far their best album and certainly one of my favorite Death Metal albums in my library.

Rating: 8.75

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Hate - Morphosis [2008]

There's quite an increase in production quality. The guitars are much heavier now. "Threnody" gives me hope for the album with more complexity in the song arrangement, but the riffs aren't particularly catchy or memorable. "Immum Coeli" starts a bit more promising, but breaks up the action a bit too much. It's a bit frustrating... many of the good ideas are balanced out by bad ideas that break flow for guitar riffs that feel fluid. Not all that great overall. It doesn't really capture or move me. Quite a flop. But at least it has got heavy production.

Rating: 5.5

http://www.hate-metal.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Hate - Anaclasis - A Haunting of Gospel Malice & Hatred [2005]

A much more appealing and interesting intro to the album... don't fucking let me down this time, cock-suckers. They've really taken a chapter out of Arkhon Infaustus' book of simple guitar riff with pure grind underneath. It's got a more evil feel to it as well. Problem is that the riff doesn't really change much at all until about 3 minutes in, so it feels like it has overstayed its welcome. There are some new aspects added to the formula in the form of electronic effects. It's mostly just one type of riff and song all the way up until "Malediction" which starts weak as hell, then gets really good, but then goes back to really weak again. "Razorblade" finally changes things up, if only slightly. "Fountains of Blood to Reach Heaven" is actually genuinely good in every way. The energy finally makes it all the way through to the end of one of Hate's albums. The songwriting is much better. However, they still are adding pointless and weak riffs in the middle otherwise strong songs. A few riffs are too drawn out and become boring. This album is a thousand times better than anything previously done by Hate. Finally, an album I can listen to more than once.

Rating: 7

http://www.hate-metal.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Hate - Awakening of the Liar [2003]

First track is good on energy; hopefully they'll be able to keep it up throughout the album this time. "Anti-God Extremity" has a terrible introduction and, overall, the writing is quite slap-dash. "Close to the Nephilim" is a step in the correct direction, but it has its fair share of boring and pointless riffs. One of the problems this album has is the use of regular break-riffs that destroy the sense of flow within the songs. These riffs would be permissible if they weren't repeated at regular and predictable intervals. In short, it's no better than the previous one. The energy is killed by the poor writing, extremely derivative riffs, and lacking power. The fact that they haven't improved at all means a big "FUCK YOU" from me.

Rating: 3.5

http://www.hate-metal.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Hate - Cain's Way [2002]

Starts off with good energy. Not horrible production and it's still punchy. However, the energy starts to drop away once the initial punch wears off and the songwriting is too stock to carry it without the energy. I am definitely looking forward to the next releases because there's potential for one hell of a brutal album here. I do LOVE the last track, though.

Rating: 5

http://www.hate-metal.com/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Decapitated - The Negation [2004]

Quite heavier production right off the bat. GREAT first track... very heavy songwriting, energetic, and brutally technical. "Three-Dimensional Defect" slows things down just a bit and brings in some Fear Factory aesthetics. The songs go back and forth between slow death and grinding shreds... but most of the stuff is slower as the album progresses. Ok, so the slower parts are certainly catchy and well-written, but it's a bit unfortuitous for the listener that the album that starts with such blazing energy sags so much in the middle. However, this is a much more refined version of the style change that began with Nihility. If I'm in the mood for more groove than fast-tearing-speed, this will be perfect.

Rating: 7.75

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

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Decapitated - Nihility [2002]

Significantly more technicality on the guitars and drums. Overall, the style is quite different. A bit more mature. It's a bit of a weird album, though, because the groove continually gets broken up making it very difficult to settle down with this album. Too much of it feels clinical despite the style change. The production is a bit odd as well... it's lost much of the heaviness of WoC, but has gained more clarity. An interesting effort, but despite the new style and increased technical prowess, it's not all that catchy and it feels rather like a dulled razor.

Rating: 7

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

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Decapitated - Winds of Creation [2000]

What a start. Heavy as hell; punchy-ass production; catchy as fuck; BRUTAL. Wow, I've forgotten how good this album is. Not all of it is catchy, but it's certainly better than I initially thought when I first purchased the album 10 years ago. There is one production issue that has been nagging me: the left guitar is not as loud as the right guitar... poor mixing. Other than that, this is an awesome first effort that makes most bands' peak albums look immature by comparison. Well done.

Rating: 8

http://www.decapitatedband.net/

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Behemoth - Evangelion [2009]

If the whole album is like the first track, it'll get a nearly perfect score. Good job mixing up the speeds a bit. Extremely well-crafted guitar work. It all fits so perfectly together. Even the background atmospheric stuff feels like it all has a purpose. The first couple of songs have definitely taken a few cues from Nile. One major issue keeping it from a perfect score is the predictability of the album about half-way through.

Rating: 8.5

http://www.behemoth.pl/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Behemoth - The Apostasy [2007]

Huge disappointment. There's really only one good track on here with the rest being sell-out pop-metal shit.

Rating: 5

http://www.behemoth.pl/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.

Behemoth - Zos Kia Cultus [2002]

First track is actually a bit weak. The second track, on the other hand, is a fucking brutal kick in the nuts with spiked boots. A major complaint I have is that the drums are weakly recorded. Also, the overall production feels a bit stale, probably because there's no sign of re-verb at all until shit slows down. The writing is what I've come to expect from Behemoth. It's not really my style, but at the same time they do some things so well that I can't help but enjoy it. This album in particular is actually a bit slower and less extreme than stuff from Demigod.

Rating: 6

http://www.behemoth.pl/

All ratings are out of 10. Rating may not be a whole number.