SAMPLE IDENTIFICATION

Artist: Decapitated
Album: Organic Hallucinosis
Release Year: 2006
Country: Poland
Label: Earache
Studio Album No.: 4
Genre(s): Technical Death
Tracklist:
1. A Poem About an Old Prison Man – 4:42
2. Day 69 – 03:14
3. Revelation of Existence (The Trip) – 04:39
4. Post (?) Organic – 05:45
5. Visual Delusion – 05:55
6. Flash-B(l)ack – 03:42
7. Invisible Control – 04:45
Total: 32:39

BACKGROUND

Decapitated is a Polish technical death metal band that formed when all the members were going through the early stages of puberty, I shit you not. When their debut Winds of Creation dropped in 2000 the age range of the four original members of the band was 15-18. Try listening to it with this knowledge, you’ll be fucking floored.

Organic Hallucinosis, their fourth album, features a new vocalist after the previous vocalist quit the band on amicable terms due to health issues. It was the last album before a bus accident severely injured this new vocalist and killed their drummer. Organic Hallucinosis is largely considered to be a transitional album due to these circumstances.

METALLURGICAL EVALUATION

Since I have a hard time counting Opeth, it shall forever be Decapitated that will have the real distinction of popping my death metal cherry! I don’t remember why, but out of the seven trillion death metal bands I decided upon this one with very little forethought or research. I just dove right in. And all these years later I consider it a lucky choice, because Decapitated are considered one of the most competent groups to ever graze the technical death genre. I started from Album #1 and went in order. Album #4, Organic Hallucinosis, was the first to give me pause.

What I know now, which I didn’t know then, is that this album is not reeeaaalllly a tech death album. It’s more of a groove death metal album! I know, right, who cares? Meaningless! But, ah, this is why Organic Hallucinosis has its detractors among the more aspergers-addled members of the fanbase. You see, Decapitated’s fourth album is different enough from the first three that even someone like me, the guy who probably listened to only six death metal records at the time, could tell right away that something was unique.

Hell, from those very first notes you could hear the difference. That angular and chaotic rhythm just locks you in immediately. Mathy and choppy, but fluid and continuous. And it doesn’t let up! Groove metal, baby. Addictive and memorable rhythms, no sacrifice to the aggression as they handily pummel your ears with tight playing and songwriting. Adrian “Covan” Kowanek is even intelligible and articulate through his throaty growls, allowing access to even the most novice of meek little mice dipping their toes into the death metal lake of molten lava. I mean, you still have to work on it a little bit if you’re used to, say, Robert Plant, but Covan’s belting out of “SAVE MY AIR!” during the opening track, for example, isn’t too hard to understand. Unless you think he’s saying “SAM I AM!”, which I thought he did at first, so never mind! My point is that he doesn’t sound like he’s fucking a pig. Maybe people don’t like that about this album either? Who knows, metal fans are very particular.

At 32 minutes, the album is also the perfect length for this flavor of high-octane tech/groove death metal. Notable too is some diversity in tone and complexity to keep the ear interested. Chunky head-spinning fretwork alternates with simpler and more reserved passages. Vitek is a master at the drumset, peppering in some of the cleanest and quickest drum fills you’re find in the entire genre. And every listen is still exciting and fresh. The production is crisp enough to add just the right amount of cold, mechanical atmosphere. Overall, it’s just an incredibly professional and well-made final product.

Figure 1. Aha, Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins and a couple of the girls from Hanson! Very nice.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, it’s just an incredibly professional and well-made final product. Wait, I said that already! Well, it’s true! I would urge any aspiring death metal fan to add Organic Hallucinosis to their probably rather long list of essential albums to check out, even if it might be from the current millennium. Not only is it a moderately accessible and “musical” extreme metal record, but it’s a very tight and addictive one at that. From there you can go in either direction with the Decapitated discography: the first three more traditional tech death records, or the next three slow and gradual descents into glorified nu-metal. For those who don’t take their genre fandom too seriously there’s much to enjoy across the whole board.