Decapitated - Winds of Creation (2000)^{Release ID: 5200}

If I am honest there's a list in my head that is loosely titled "Albums to kick yourself for all eternity for not owning".  Near the top of that list is this record.  Currently it is absent from all streams even and so I had to dig to find any stream of it on the internet, however after I write this review I am off to find a physical copy and reduce the aforementioned list by at least one.

The urgency and immediacy of Winds of Creation is extraordinary from the very off the album imposes on you it's agenda of technical and bludgeoning death metal.  This is the only Decapitated release I have any real time for because it is just so freaking well put together and has a feel on most songs of the pace just gathering and gathering yet never once does the arrangement of any track or the album as a whole suffer for it.

Even more impressive is the fact that this is the band's debut full length.  Drummer Vitek was only sixteen years old when they recorded this album and even at that fledgling age the boy was a fucking beast.  Likewise, bassist Martin was only seventeen years of age and the two oldest members (Vogg and Sauron) were still only nineteen.  To be able to put together such an accomplished release so early in their careers is a triumph in my book but when you add the age of the members and their musical prowess to the fact then it becomes almost mind boggling.

Vogg's riffs are monstrous affairs.  Relentless in their delivery and yet so well paced throughout the seemingly ever increasing tempo of each track it is not hard to see why this man was under consideration for Morbid Angel when Erik Rutan left.  This man is a talent and his sonics are so well placed and quickly delivered that they provide near respite from the raging intensity around them.  Vocalist Sauron has the academic title of Master of Musicology from Jagielonian University (come on, who doesn't want that title before or after their name?) and grunts his way through eight tracks (the ninth track being an instrumental) as a perfect accompaniment to the raging death metal being played.

Right, off internet shopping...