Cancer Culture NUCLEAR BLAST

Poland’s disputed death/groove metallers make their case

Decapitated return to face the music

WELCOME TO THE

greyest of the grey zones. In September 2017, Poland’s then-cause célèbre death metallers Decapitated were arrested after a gig in Santa Ana, California and charged a month later with second and third degree rape. After the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges, the case was dropped in January. Prosecutors stated they had dropped the charges “in the interests of justice” and for “the well-being of the victim”, while the bandmembers’ attorneys stated it was a result of various witness testimonies in their defence, and at the behest of the accuser. If you still don’t know how to feel about Decapitated, then at least you’re still engaged in a moral dialogue, because outside those directly involved, no one knows, and to come down firmly on one side risks an injustice to the other.

No one’s going to listen to Cancer Culture unless they at the very least entertain the possibility that the band are innocent. And the rub is that, sonically, it’s such the epitome of what death metal should sound like in 2022 that you can’t just squirm your way through it. If the insistent, Lamb Of God-esque, groove-driven title track doesn’t address the aftermath directly, the lines ‘Opinions like opiates… Comments like convictions’ are surely a knowing parallel. But the imperious sound isn’t down to rage or defensiveness, it’s a celebration of Meshuggah-level precision, aerated with atmospheric leads.