### Decapitated: 2010-02-08

#### 11/03/11 || The Duff

Who: Man Must Die/Some indiscriminate band/Kataklysm/Decapitated When: 8th February, 2010 Where: The Islington, London, UK

When drummer extraordinaire Vitek passed away and neo-vocalist supreme Covan was hospitalized in 2007, the future for Decapitated was put on hold; to say that my heart stopped temporarily wouldn’t be an embellishment, as these Poles were the reason I ventured into my favourite sub-genre of music to this day, “The Negation” easily my most preferred death metal album yet. Vogg being the only founding member left, the desire to pursue his band’s potential overcame the tragic loss of his brother, and his loyalty to and adoration of the British people reason for his band’s reunion tour’s first landing on UK soil. Let me tell you, these guys have not missed a fucking beat, but more on that later.

The venue was The Islington in London, probably one of the best venues I’ve been to in this land, primarily and probably solely for the easy-access bar that stretched all along the one side of the wall; service was expedient too, so if some silly tart skirting the mosh-pit but not getting heavily involved knocked beer all over your shoes it was but a higher than meagre sum to part with other than the comfy loafers you’d grown so attached to now soaked in beer and urine, for her vagina was likewise spraying fear-piss all over the territory she was encircling as with the reckless abandon synonymous with the crazed but self-preservation-focused.

Couldn’t quite recall the band that took stage pre-Kataklysm, but I don’t think that it was Man Must Die (a recent tech death band receiving good coverage as of late) as the monstrously-built vocalist who guest-appeared for “Spheres of Madness” was not the same dude fronting these guys; they weren’t particularly interesting despite talented musicians, even the more techy bits seeming overly jagging, tried-and-tired-and-true as well as much ado about nothing. So it was for Canadian gradually-getting-to-be-legendary act Kataklysm that enthusiasm started to boil. In the end, though, I was failed to be won over – they had some great songs, awesome riffs, but some real buzz-killer moments that I could only guess were from their latest albums (even “Serenity in Fire” single “Slither” was a lukewarm affair that had me staring into my pint wondering where did all the bubbles go). In the end, I couldn’t much fault them, but one can understand why they’ve never truly broken into death metal stardom, where the road-muffins are moist and the air is free.

Decapitated didn’t take long to come on stage, and the energy they were giving out from the onset was a moment of glory rivaled only by Viking conquests. That was a very shitty line, but it’s mid-day here and my lids are getting heavy. The new line-up is remarkably deadly, heavy as can be (newfound drummer is by far a harder hitter than Vitek, if only not of quite as much finesse), professional like you wouldn’t believe; in fact, I think for once Vogg was put on a spot in competing with such practiced musicians, as being the most organic of musicians, his leads and chopp-y rhythms were the most apparent fuck-ups in the show. Rafał Piotrowski (the new vocalist) is one vicious motherfucker indeed, and one would question how he would rival Covan’s stage-presence; he did so by being just as loud, yet a more humble approach made the audience warm to him far more enthusiastically than a Brighton crowd to Covan.

The cuts played included all of “Organic Hallucinosis” save the one shitty track (“Revelation of Existence”, if you have to ask), “Nihility”, “Three Dimensional Defect”, “Lying and Weak”, don’t think they played “The Fury” as they usually do but they might’ve done, “Winds of Creation” and a closing with “Spheres of Madness” with some random beefcake making a guest-appearance. The guitars started cutting out towards the end of the show, which was a huge fucking shame, but the band destroyed more than I’ve ever seen the original line-up – before they were a tech death live performance to behold, now a fucking powerhouse of noise and energy, this coming from a long-time and one of their biggest fans. Merch was cheap, got me a nice long-sleeve of “Organic Hallucinosis” after my “Sensual Sickness Tour” t-shirt perished in the wash, and left quite fucked and full of good vibes: awesome show, and not the first time Decapitated have entirely made up for the support-acts.

9 bands kicking the shit out of deadweight out of 10.

- Setlist
- 01. Read the review, fucko; I don’t go to shows carrying a notepad.