DECAPITATED — Organic Hallucinosis (review)

DECAPITATED — Organic Hallucinosis album cover

Album · 2006 · Technical Death Metal

4.5/5 · 2024-06-16
UMUR

"Organic Hallucinosis" is the fourth full-length studio album by Polish death metal act Decapitated. The album was released through Earache Records in February 2006. It´s the successor to "The Negation" from March 2004. There´s been one lineup change since the last album as original lead vocalist Wojciech "Sauron" Wąsowicz has been replaced by Adrian "Covan" Kowanek.

Although still very young at this point (drummer Witold "Vitek" Kieltyka was for example only 22 years old in 2006, but had already recorded four full-length studio albums with Decapitated), Decapitated had already been through a lot of musical development on the first three albums by the band, and "Organic Hallucinosis" marks another major step in their development. Kowanek is a more hoarse, throaty, and intelligible growler than the more regular death metal growling Wąsowicz and his more diverse vocal style (he performs a few screams too) is a nice asset to the band´s sound. As if Decapitated were´t technical enough on the preceding releases they´ve upped their technical playing on "Organic Hallucinosis" even further. There are some mindblowing guitar riffs and drum patterns featured on this album, which deserve repeated listens and praise.

What is most remarkable though is probably how they´ve approached the songwriting on this album. The heavy organic grooves and the sharp and brutal start/stop riffing of the last couple of releases are there and accounted for, but some of these tracks feature some pretty unconventional structures and compositional ideas. Sometimes I´m thinking there´s a dark psychedelic sci-fi atmosphere to some of the guitar themes and the overall mood of the album, and it´s obvious that Decapitated have put a lot of effort into writing some challenging and adventurous songs for themselves and for their fans. "Day 69" is an example of that, when Kieltyka is allowed some seconds of a capella drumming time, where he plays the songs percussive pattern without the other instruments playing. It´s just a little detail, but there are many like it on the album, and it speaks volumes of a band not resting on their songwriting laurels.

"Organic Hallucinosis" features a powerful, heavy, clear, and detailed sound production, which suits the material perfectly and upon conclusion it´s through and through a high quality release. While Decapitated had always incorporated a lot of heavy grooves and angular riffing on their previous releases, they take it a step further on "Organic Hallucinosis". They may alienate a few of their most old school death metal fans in the process, but if you can imagine pairing the old school brutality of the previous Decapitated releases with blistering technical playing, and a heavy groove laden influence from artists like Meshuggah and their ilk, you´ll probably appreciate "Organic Hallucinosis". A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.