Review: Decapitated – Blood Mantra

Decapitated return with their latest offering ‘Blood Mantra’ an eight-track album seething with tension and room darkening riffs. ‘Exiled in Flesh’ draws you into the album with a tension building opening, making you wait for the initial onslaught of the band. ‘Veins and Nest’ managed to ramp up the tension even further with some inhumanly tight rhythm work from Pawel and Michal. ‘Veins’ is the stand out track from this album as it hits you with every ounce of metal the band can muster – a track capable of starting a one man mosh pit in an empty room. ‘Instinct’ lets the band push the tempo and themselves right to the limit – I think will be a live favorite for the fans!

‘Blindness’ pushes the band into new musical ground for Decapitated pushing a slightly prog-metal groove intro whilst managing to keep it dark and brooding. Rafal’s vocal keeps bursting through the music acting as punctuation marks for the music. ‘Red Sun’ is a purely instrumental track, this track finally releases all the tension that the last seven tracks have been building up to. The calmness of this track washes over your senses leaving you with feeling that everything has been resolved but with a feeling that something still lies in wait for you.

I must say that ‘Blood Mantra’ is one of the most mentally draining things I have listened to. I mean this with all due respect to Decapitated as the album is so musically complex. ‘Blood Mantra’ will certainly please those who have been craving a fix of death metal, and fans who have been waiting for the next chapter in the Decapitated saga. I give ‘Blood Mantra’ a five out of five and highly recommend it.