Hacked to Death

The other Decapitated (known as Decapitated R.P. on their album cover) released this unknown album over a decade ago to seemingly nobody. Hacked to Death is exactly what you would expect from a country like the Phillipines: brutal death. If you have heard other Filipino brutal death metal bands, you will know what you're in for before you even press play. While that might be true, this is still a decent album.

Guitars have a slight fuzz to them, and I can imagine that mastering costs may have been exorbitant, but I think they have a nice warmth to them this way – not too clean, but not too muddy. There’s even some clean guitars to open and close “Sanguinary of Flesh” (the longest and favourite track here). Drumming doesn’t offer much in terms of variety, but the blasts and kicks are performed with decent skill, even if I do pick up the odd mistake here and there. Vocals are a twin-attack of low growls and higher shrieks, where both work in tandem with each other and neither sounds forced. All these elements are pretty much what the listener would expect from a brutal death band from the Phillipines.

Decapitated R.P. have a decent arsenal of skill at their disposal, but I feel it wasn’t used to its full capacity. There’s some nice slower parts in “Sanguinary of Flesh,” and some really cool solos, especially the one that ends “Souls of Death,” but they’re all used too fleetingly. While they know their way around their instruments, don’t expect many of the riffs to stay in your head longer than its running time. Having said that, it’s a fun album to put on and listen to some mindless brutal death every now and again.