The Negation

Decapitated greatly impressed the world of metal with their ridiculously mature debut album for such a young band. They already displayed great song writing chops and the technical skills to back them up. Admittedly, by the time of recording The Negation, they were still only twenty something and this is the same tight line-up that gave us Winds of Creation.

But contrary to what one would hope for - that the band would find a refined core identity reaching album number three - this albums sounds more like a mixture of what was trending a couple of years before its release. Opener "The Fury" is a Hate Eternal oozing knuckle sandwich, "Three-Dimensional Defect" plods in Cannibal Corpse filled galleries of suicide, "Lunatic of God's Creation" is an actual Deicide cover, "The Empty Throne" has a crawling pace worthy of slower Morbid Angel songs, "Lying and Weak" pays homage to compatriots Vader, and "Sensual Sickness" and "Long Desired Dementia" are spastic in their Origin.... Then throw in some stealthy dashes of early Sepultura here and there...

Nothing wrong with such influences, it's just that Decapitated sound like uninspired copycats rather than passionate worshippers on this album. They manage to imitate some of the less appealing and more lackluster features of the aforementioned bands, such as the monotony of early Origin, which is certainly not a favourable aspect to ape after.

The title track makes me think a bit of Sotajumala, who incidentaly released their debut Death Metal Finland the same year as The Negation came out. Drawing from similar sources, what Sotajumala manages to achieve is a coherent sound. They draw their material from one well in particular (Morbid Angel) thus creating a sense of unity, and backs the material up with a solid identity that screams "Sotajumala" whenever you press play.

On The Negation, Decapitated fails to do so. It sounds to me like a band anxious to pick the ripe fruits of a movement, forgetting to have fun or take risks. The production of the album is competent but rather flat, and if the ambition has been to create a unified sound, the result is unfortunately and paradoxically a monotonous one, despite the rainbow of influences on offer here. Sauron's vocals are contributing to the dullness of the album, being among the more monochrome deliveries of death metal growls, neither deep nor high pitched. They are just there.

So why go for something unworthy of even B-side status if it came from the songsmiths of any of the aforementioned influences, if I can listen to the originals? In case of Decapitated, I would rather check out Winds of Creation or Nihility for a favourable idea of Decapitated's origins. The Negation is not a bad album, it's just not very interesting.

Volume 3 of prime Decapitated continues to further polish the diamond that is this brand of high-octane fury from the Polish death metal savants. The previous effort 'Nihility' was virtually perfect technically but lacked in maturity where the songs were excellently written and executed death metal that felt somewhat aimless with its artistic direction, or at least came across as too neutral thematically and often lacked the substance that makes music feel whole and meaningful. 'The Negation' here changes that. Not that it's a particularly subtle musical style by any means, but there's real purpose and a genuine sense of an asserted personality coming through the songs. Where the previous was a tad vacant in flavor, this one has a distinctly dark and scornful edge to it.

The first thing that comes to mind describing this album is how all-conquering and mighty it feels. The grooves are - pardon my French - fucking heavy. The technicality has slowed down compared to the previous but in the sense that the songs are now more ripe and concise as they're mainly centered around grooves, and the simplified riffs in fact come across as more cohesive and seem to carry more punch and impact with fewer notes than the last one's trigger-happy blend of tech-death. The songs are actually built on a verse/chorus/break structure here, and it would be no exaggeration to say every single riff and part were made to count. No filler in sight.

The power chord grooves are as good and headbang-inducing as it gets in this field, coupled with the precise single-note riffing as well as the heinous tremolo picking, all drenched in subversive darkness and with an emphasis on stylistic riff aesthetics, making for an ideal formula. This extends to the solo sections, and guitarist Vogg does a great job coming up with tasteful leads and solos that perfectly fit and lift the sections rather than just toss another layer of notes over them. Some of the solo work is just excellent. The ones on the track 'The Negation' and on the album closer 'The Empty Throne' present a more somber and atmospheric lead style with long suspended notes and simpler phrasing tinged with dismay, again attesting to Vogg's maturity as both a song-writer and guitarist. The chillingly named short instrumental ('The Calling') auguring the imminent grand piece de resistance (the title-track) goes knee-deep into that bleak darkly-tainted and more introspective ambiance, as Vogg just lets his guitars weep with grueling harmonized distortion feedback. The album has this sort of depth and knows to take its time to be more poignant and memorable.

Drummer Vitek puts in another spectacular shift here. His double kicks are straight up machine gun fire and his blast beats utterly destructive, they really give the impression of an unstoppable force and create a most potent combination with the clinical guitar riffing on top. The music is also generally more dissonant than previously as the band were clearly seeking a far more obscure atmosphere than on the first two records. The self-titled track in particular showcases the band's development and maturity in that sense. They no longer need to be hyper-technical to be special, as that complexity has now been traded in for longer lasting and more memorable composition. 'Nihility', although a fantastic death metal record, in comparison feels a bit more gimmicky, and the riffs here more substantial and weighty. Decapitated are now in a position of complete control over their composition and can wisely choose when a song requires an acceleration or a boost in technicality. They're no longer basically one speed: the best example for this is again the title-track, an utterly basic if not minimalist main riff and verse followed by one of their trademark intricate power chord mazes, before Vogg decides to go berserk on what is undeniably one of the record's highlights: the breakdown on 'The Negation'.

The album goes by in a snap, which isn't a comment one hears often when talking about a full death metal record. As the listener we're given so much valuable fresh information and delight to immediately have to process, it seems like 5min have gone by and we're up to the daunting instrumental/title-track area and another bat of the eye propels us towards the vertiginous abyss that are the final seconds of 'The Empty Throne'. A slow languishing fade to black into the distance, 30min have gone by, the trance lets go of our consciousness and we're back on our two feet, in a room in front of a computer. Sober as ever. Top notch stuff. For this sort of death metal, it doesn't get a whole lot better.

http://antichristmagazine.com/review-decapitated-the-negation-earache-records/

The final album from the classic Decapitated lineup (before Covan stepped in to replace Sauron) also happens to be the one I most struggle to remember. Both the cover art and production values of The Negation are superior to Nihility, but musically they seemed to continue a process of stagnation without abandoning the energetic musicianship. A lot of the riffing passages remind me quite a lot of Morbid Angel circa Covenant or the faster Vader blitzes, or more accurately an analog to Behemoth's death metallic tirades of the late 90s/21st century; sufficiently explosive and muscular, but lacking much real staying power once the percussive consistency has vacated the listener's brain. This album does indeed sound great through the speakers, and I kept waiting for those money shot guitar progressions circa the earlier albums to help fill out the intensity of the execution, but they never seemed to cu...show up. It's safe harbor to a number of retread ideas thickened with a little more meat.

For example, "Three-Dimensional Defect" has a lot of that pinpoint muted aggression circa "Spheres of Madness", only with more shredding in there; while a number of other tunes have opening riff salvos that almost remind me of new millennium Slayer material if it were to quickly be subsumed by Sandoval blast storms and picking punches that lack a lot of individual character. This is very likely Decapitated at its densest, and I do enjoy the guitar tone a lot here as it eschews the aridity of its predecessor, but as one seeking those winding, hectic but highly musical note progressions that defined Winds of Creation, I felt like this album often suffered from a lot of what might plague a band like Krisiun, that Morbid Angel or Deicide-inspired reliance on heavy brickwork without much clever or unique songwriting. Brutality and speed first, and a lot of insipid palm mute passages to which distinction is a foreign concept. The sword is mightier than the pen this time around, and the best I can say for it all is that Vitek's drumming certainly seemed to have continued to develop. This is probably his most intense performance over the four albums he was with the band, but without anything interesting to beat the skins to it just doesn't matter so much.

I have a hard time coming up with even a half-dozen guitar parts on this album that I'd consider keepers, like in "The Empty Throne" or "Three-Dimensional Defect" which felt like leftovers from the Nihility sessions, or a lick or two from the title track. Sauron sounds a hell of a lot like David Vincent on Domination, which is not a negative necessarily, but the guy would simply never evolve his gutturals into something that a hundred other guys don't already have covered (he's a little better on the second Masachist effort, Scorned, but still not unique. Lyrically Decapitated remain consistent, they've never been a gore band, so the song subjects deal with the constraints of our flawed beliefs, religions, human vices/impulses or civilizations as a whole, but then the music is just too rarely thoughtful to drive them home. They cover Deicide's "Lunatic of God's Creation", but unlike the Slayer tune on the debut, there's not much making it their own, because aside from a few production tweaks its exactly like the origin...stylistically dependent, and that post-bridge section seems to have directly translated into a handful of their own riffs on this album. The Negation is ultimately one of those albums which comes off as effectively brutal without much need for dizzying complexity, but after a decade of second chances, it just don't cultivate enough sticky chops to bother with.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Decapitated's first 2 albums were both rather excellent, so they must've been under a fair bit of pressure in this album. In this album, then, they took a slightly different approach. There's still all the super heavy riffing we all know and love, but (at least in my mind anyway) there's a bit of thrash influence added here.

One thing that should probably be mentioned first off is the production. It is amazing. The guitar's are super thick and chunky, the drums sound great and Sauron's deep roar sounds awesome. All DM bands should be produced this good. The riffs in this album are for the most part really, really choppy, and along with Sauron's fairly monotonous vocals, this album can become a little bit repetitive after a few songs, simply because not much rings out, and so it can turn into one long thing of choppiness..or something. But, while the riffs may indeed be very choppy, they are also all extremely good, and there is a fair bit of variety. Three Dimensional Defect has some really awesome fast, palm muted riffs that bring to mind Chaosphere-Era Meshuggah, Sensual SIckness has some super moody riffs that are super heavy and quite evil, while on the title track, the whole band slows down for a heavy and super cool thrash song. The leads are amazing too. There's definetly an old school feel about them, but Vogg uses a lot of interesting scales to give it a bit of an alien feel. WHile there are a few long guitar solos, for the most part they're fairly efficent, never overstaying their welcome, which is a good thing. Vogg is an excellent guitar player. All of this riffing and soloing is backed up by the excellent drumming. The drumming is super fast.. but that's to be expected, this is Death Metal After all. But, the drummer does pull of some super fast fills (32nd note stuff, always good to hear) and he does do a lot of creative and interesting beats.

While the vocals aren't much to talk about, and there is definetly an element of repetitiveness, this is a really quite awesome album, full of massive riffs, great drumming and some truly awesome production. Probably a great album to buy if you're just getting into Death Metal too.

After being a fan of Decapitated since their earlier releases, I decided to buy this one thinking it would be in the same tone, musically and lyrically as the others. To my surprise, it was not. Actually, on the previous albums I was sure they were death metal, but they sound more like thrash on The Negation. Anyway, this is not a bother, but I noticed that musically, they seem to have degressed, and in some ways, also advanced.

For one, the guitarwork is very dark and angry, with very minor guitar riffs on many of the songs. It also seems very choppy, as the guitarist hardly hits any chords or notes that are longer than a quarter beat. Therefore, after a while it all begins to sound too repetetive. Nevertheless, it is very powerful and a major advocate to Decapitated's sound.

The drums are not anything special, just a lot of double-bass work and plain, robotic beats that tend to lose their effect after a while. Overall, the drums don't sound as mechanical (though I like them) as their previous albums, which is fine because the drummer is still a great one and adds huge class to this band.

Perhaps the biggest flaw on this album is that the vocalist growls some of the choppiest ever. He hardly growls and lets it ring for more than a 4-beat measure, and that's being generous. Not only that, but he literally sounds the same on the duration of the ENTIRE album. He never changes his pitch or does ANYTHING special with them. It's like a bull dog barking at you that won't shut up.

The bass...I wouldn't know. I can't hear it if I put full bass effects to do so.

The bonus track at the end didn't do anything to lift my spirits, especially because it sounds just like all the other songs with the exception of technicality.

This album is nothing new, and shows nothing innovative as their past efforts have. Still, I didn't grade it on that. I just graded the album itself. Genuinely, The Negation is only alright.

Right.

First off. I've seen a lot of people on various messageboards whining and moaning about how Decapitated have made a bad album.

How 'The Negation' is anything like a "bad album" is beyond me, as this album is the result of the evolution Decapitated were destined to take.
Admittedly it's not quite as high up there in terms of the potential and anticipation surrounding any Decapitated album, but The Negation burns with an intensity and fury unmatched by any death metal album I've heard for a while.

From Sauron's gutteral bark, more focused yet still volatile, to the dazzling riffs and guitar work of Vogg and the precision drumwork of Vitek (not to mention Martin on bass); this album seethes and twitches like a bull terrier on a chain, dying to sink it's teeth into anything that gets too close.

Quite simply these songs are aural incendiary devises.

Admittedly, there are some slightly iffy decisions, particularly the inclusion of a far too interruptive shoddy instrumental slapbang in the middle of the album, but the crystal clear production and wanton destruction inspired by the music played live is more than enough to warrant closer inspection.

Yes, it doesn't have as much out and out groove as say Winds Of Creation, but this takes the groove and translates it into a far more effective and brutal language.

Those that don't like it, more than likely can't stand the intensity.

If you like death metal the way death metal should be played, buy this album. If you like death metal Gothenburg style, stay aware on pain of death! this album is not for the weak.