March 2023 - Feature Release - The Horde Edition

So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.

This month’s feature release for The Horde has been nominated by myself. It's Decapitated's sophomore album from 2002 "Nihility" which I revisited recently after a 2002 deep dive I did.  Following up on "Winds of Creation" was a tall order so it will be interesting to see what the regulars (and any non-regulars too of course) make of this release.

https://metal.academy/releases/5201

According to my music catalogue sheet 2002 is a poor year for metal. At least for my tastes anyway. Tsjuder's Demonic Possession sits as my top release for the year and as much as I like that release I find it hard to believe that this is the best that the year has to offer. So I have been on a mini-exploration of 2002 to see what else came out that year and I find myself now sat with Bloodbath's Resurrection Through Carnage and this the sophomore release from Poland's Decapitation. The bad news is that I do not particularly like technical death metal all that much. The good news is that I found Decapitated's debut album a real banger so it set up the sophomore as an opportunity to see if the band could continue this vein of rich form.

I acknowledge the prowess required to perform this style of music but I still cannot help but find Nihility a little bit dull. It is not like the band do not deploy riffs well - their arrangements are actually pretty good - more that they all sound the same and lack any real bite overall. Vogg can play most certainly and the lead work underlines this fact perfectly well but the guitars lack the heart of the drums (done by the late Vitek - Vogg's brother of course). Sauron's vocals are monstrous enough also and I like how Martin's bass is not all that obvious but carries a perfect tone in accompaniment to the guitar and so goes some way to maintaining a level of intensity that the strings of Vogg alone cannot achieve.

Other than the really well-known Spheres of Madness not a lot stands out on this album I am afraid. As technically proficient as it is, it is not entertaining and strays too far away from the gritty aggression that determined my relationship with death metal in the first place for the album to ever see any of the top end of my scoresheet. I kind of want to applaud what I hear but then immediately find myself going "now what? What's next guys? Oh. More of the same" and pretty quickly find myself caught in repetitive and predictable loop of regurgitated riffs and ideas after just a handful of tracks. My hopes for 2002 now lie with Bloodbath it seems.

3/5

My take is a bit different to Vinny's in that I've always thought of "Nihility" as a very high quality example of the tech death subgenre. There's plenty of technicality on offer but it's never at the expense of the song-writing & the riffs are always memorable. The performances are astounding for such a young group of dudes too, particularly the drumming & the beautifully composed guitar solos which are both highlights. There's obviously some strong Vader/Morbid Angel/Cannibal Corpse style classic death metal influences going on here but the technicality in the riff structures sees Decapitated playing more in the Nile or particularly Psycroptic space. The death growls are pretty standard but well executed & suitably aggressive. I know this album is often criticized for sounding too clinical due to the heavily triggered drum sounds & scooped 90's guitar tone but I think that's being very harsh as the whole thing just comes off as being a really classy extreme metal record to my ears. No complaints from me.

4/5