Stats
Biography
The band was founded by 15 year old guitarist Waclaw ‘Vogg’ Kieltyka along with his 12 year old brother Witold ‘Vitek’ and 16 year old Wojciech ‘Sauron’ Wasowicz on vocals in 1996. The following year they added Marcin ‘Martin’ Rygiel on bass to complete the line-up. In 1997 they released their first demo “Cemeterial Gardens” and the second “The Eye of Horus” a year later.
Signing to Wicked World Records, Decapitated released their debut album “Winds of Creation” in 2000. Even at this early stage the youngsters showed heaps of promise as the album showcased their intricate and accomplished technical ability yet possessed a haunting and effervescent quality. The album featured a cover of Slayer’s “Mandatory Suicide” and tracks such as “Blessed” and “The First Damned” demonstrated their impeccable song-writing skills.
In 2001 the band embarked on their first UK tour with Vader before releasing their self-produced second album “Nihility” in 2002. Critics praised the album for the operatic death metal sound which flowed throughout while maintaining brutal demonic nuances in tracks like “Eternity Too Short” and “Spheres of Madness”. Later that year the band were asked to play at Poland’s Ozzfest alongside founder Black Sabbath’s Ozzy Osborne as well as Tool and Slayer.
Decapitated’s third album “The Negation” released in 2004 again favoured well with critics and in support of its release the band toured the US and Europe for the remainder of the year. In 2005 Sauron announced his departure from the band and was replaced by ex Atrophia Red Sun vocalist Adrian ‘Covan’ Kowanek as the band prepared to record the highly ambitious fourth album “Organic Hallucinosis”. The album saw Decapitated take a risk in pursuing a new musical direction which critics feared might alienate their hardcore fanbase. Although a slight deviation from their earlier releases, the album demonstrated significant maturity with powerful hooks and an abundance of technical dexterity.
The band spent most of 2006 expanding on their US exposure as they toured the region playing alongside American death metal bands: Suffocation, Six Feet Under and Fear Factory. In 2007 tragedy struck when the band were involved in van accident along the Russian border killing Vitek and leaving Covan severely injured and in a coma. Traumatised by the incident and of course the death of Vogg’s brother, Decapitated went on a much needed hiatus.
Resuming in 2009, the band went in search of a new drummer and now a vocalist as Covan’s condition had not improved. Joined by drummer Kerim ‘Krimh’ Lechner, Rafal Piotrowski on vocals and Filip ‘Heinrich’ Halucha, Decapitated continued touring the UK, Austria, New Zealand and played a string of European festivals for the majority of 2010.
In 2012 Krimh announced his departure from the band and was replaced by Pawel Jaroszewicz for live performances as the band embarked on a tour of Asia. In 2014 drummer Michal Lysejko was permanently added to the line-up and later that year the band released their sixth studio album “Blood Mantra” which peaked in the Polish charts at number 11. Whilst touring the album in the US, the band were involved in another van accident but luckily this time no one was seriously injured.
Despite various tragedies plaguing their career, like real troopers the band have persevered pushing the boundaries of technical death metal, becoming one of Poland’s finest death metal export.
Live reviews
Decapitated’s name conjures up images in one’s mind that is not far from the intense brutality that is represented in their music. The Polish death metal band unleashes their fury at full force when they walk onto stage and create a bleak, aggressive kind of music that is perfected with incredibly technical adeptness. The band made a huge impact on the metal scene when their music surfaced in the early 2000s. Their debut album, Winds of Creation, was looked at as a landmark album for the death metal scene, which helped revitalized the genre. The band is known for their fast, technical delivery that is incredibly dense and heavy. Their drummer pounds on his drums with intense power, and whenever he plays his double bass drums it sounds like he is firing a machine gun. The guitarists play at rapid speeds and saturate their guitars in the most gritty distortion. They also produce interesting, atonal guitar riffs that sound eerie and something similar to what Slayer would create. When their guitars are not heavily distorted they run their guitars through reverb and delay pedals while playing dissonant riffs to get creepy sounds similar to a sound Opeth would produce. Rafal Piotrowski has a deep, dark growl whenever he belts out his lyrics, which adds to the gothic tone of the band’s performance.
Decapitated often dresses in all black when they perform, which adds to their bleak and macabre appearance. Piotrowski has long dreadlocks that he shakes around stage when he is headbanging to the death metal music he is producing. The band is likely to play a diverse range of music from all of their albums when they perform live. Decapitated recently released their newest album, Blood Mantra, so you can expect to hear most of the songs on this album during their setlist. Decapitated has been going strong ever since their groundbreaking debut album and have been able to maintain their intensity that garnered such a strong following for them.
very good show. all the bands were amazing. The venue (corporation sheffield) was very disgusting. Toilets were unpleasant and shitty. Bloodshot dawn was not allowed to perform because they were a bit late, even though the entire thing was late on schedule anyway