Decapitated – "Cancer Culture"

Calculating brutality

Decapitated is one of those sadly few bands that are seemingly unable to make a bad album. Even their weakest effort – 2004's "The Negation" – is still pretty damn solid. And at the risk of spoiling this review up front, well, they just did it again.

There are those who say that the band has become more generic and adherent to standards on their later albums. And while those people do have a point, there's just no denying the amount of ass that gets duly kicked here. "Cancer Culture" is pure, professionally controlled aggression – which, when you think about it, is the definition of metal done right.

Tonally, it's an overall more melodic and less dissonant album than we've had from Decepitated until now. But the energy and intensity is still red-hot, and this is especially due to the band's secret weapon, fast-as-fuck and tight-as-tits British drummer James Stewart (formerly with Decapitated's countrymen and former touring partners Vader). With a perfect amount of immaculately executed details and variations, each of his tens of thousands of strokes all the way throughout stands crystal clear, even. In fact, this album might have THE perfect drum production.

"Cancer Culture" is pure, professionally controlled aggression – which, when you think about it, is the definition of metal done right.

Two major counterpoints, though...

First, as its title suggests, Decapitated's 8th album is largely a collection of comments on current social issues. Five years have passed since "Anticult", and in these years, as we all know, a lot of shit has collectively turned the world upside down like few times before in history. This has given the band something to write about. And it's symptomatic for "Cancer Culture" that it is a very written album.

Early on in their career, Decapitated wrote songs by a much more immediate and creatively raw approach that made them original and exciting. However, as initially remarked, the band HAS come to rely upon certain standards within the genre rather than challenging themselves and the listener.

Second, the fact that "Cancer Culture" seems written rather than inspired is also reflected on the lyrical front. I should've known by the more or less deviant titles like "Just a Cigarette", "Hello Death", and "Suicidal Space Programme": The lyrics here are dealing with some very specific hot-button issues, and they're doing it in very specific ways, often leaving nothing to the reader in the way of interpretation.

For example, the album closer "Last Supper" is about global warming:

Revenge is a dish
Best served cold
Ironic given the fact
We got the planet boiled
So grab your forks
And sharpen your knives
It's just about time
To eat yourself alive

The title track is about those "woke" social justice keyboard warriors:

Unfollow and report
So easy to feel better
Throwing digital rocks
Smug righteous citizen
Chained to his desk

And "No Cure" is about the new wave of conspiracy wackos:

4Chan university graduates
Experts in funny pictures and cats
Grew small in shadows of chemtrails
In fear of syringes

Don't get me wrong, gentlemen: Your messages are important, and nobody sympathizes more with your sentiments than I do. But in an extremely aggressive genre, there are certain words that are just plain weird; "cats", "4Chan", and "funny pictures" are some of them.

Still, none of this takes away anything vital from that fact that the whole thing just plain hauls ass no matter how you look at it. Any fan of Decapitated's last coupla albums is gonna dig it.

In fact, from a purely musical perspective, there aren't any low points, so I can't name any tracks that are better than others. The slow, almost doomy "Hours as Battlegrounds" does stand out dynamically, but the quality is impeccable throughout.

Also, fans of Jinjer and Machine Head will dig the contributions from their respective frontmen/-women: Robb Flynn on "Iconoclast" and Tatiana Shmayluk on "Hello Death".

Rating: 4.5 out of 6

Genre: Death metal
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release date: 27/5/2022
Producer: Ted Jensen + David Castillo