Decapitated: The Winds Of Creation

‘You can’t win anything with kids’. When Alan Hansen infamously wrote off Manchester United‘s footballing aspirations in 1995, it would come back to haunt him. The Class of 92 spearheaded a charge that resulted in one of football’s biggest dynasties and the rest is, as they say, history. And yet that infamous phrase uttered by the pundit can have such wider relevance than just the world of football. Too often, the younger generations can be written off and dismissed based purely on a lack of experience. And yet, when the spark ignites and the youth exude energy and amazement, the world stops and takes notice. Such is true to the story of DECAPITATED.

When the Polish metallers released debut full-length Winds of Creation in 2000, it sent a seismic shockwave across the metal world. Never before had death metal sounded so lethal, so technical, and so explosive. It was a landmark record to kickstart the 21st Century for extreme music and perhaps most impressive was the age of the group themselves. At the time of recording, vocalist Sauron was the oldest member of the quartet at 18 whilst drummer Vitek was 15. A staggering feat when you experience the sheer level of technical ferocity. However, flash back several years prior and the first seeds were being sown. 1997’s Cemeteral Gardens and 1998’s The Eye of Horus demos showcase the early spark that would become one of the 21st Century’s breakout extreme bands. For guitarist Vogg, looking back two decades on from those early demo days, he remembers how the passion for heavy metal was the key ingredient in what set the DECAPITATED wheels in motion.

“I have really great memories from those times. When you listen, me playing with my brother, Vitek, it’s bouncing perfectly together even though we didn’t have much experience in the beginning. But before we started to play together, and making our own songs, we’ve been brothers. So we grew up together in the same home with the same parents and with the same music taste. We were listening all these bands like METALLICA, SLAYER, SODOM, MEGADETH plus death metal bands like MORBID ANGEL, DEICIDE, VADER and that was all of us, all of the band,” he begins, taking us back to the time pre-dating the band’s formation. “We were all friends and we were all in the same school. We grew up in the same music school, which is important. We all grew up together, we were all brothers. And even though we didn’t have much of experience playing, we had the same background and the same DNA. Sauron, the first singer of DECAPITATED, was my best friend. So coming from passion, it was amazing. We created something special that you can hear since the first demo tape. And this energy and this organic sound is a bouncing instrument together, you can hear it, we were like one solid monument playing together! And my relationship with with my brother at the time was amazing. We were thinking, if this is possible, to become professional musicians or having a band and creating a song, we started to talk more and more about that. And we became some kind of visionaries about our future, and what we were going to do and how we wanted to play and everything like that. We were really close together.”

You can’t help but notice a tinge of sadness in Vogg‘s voice as he remembers fondly about the early days of the band. Due to the tragic accident on the road in 2007 which resulted in Vitek losing his life and Vogg picking up the pieces of his broken band and family, it’s admirable and heroic that the band is still alive and kicking today. Despite the tragedy, it’s clear that Vogg treasures the memories and experiences he shared with his brother and The First Damned, a collection of those early demos, feels so much more than just a capturing of the past. Partly, this is due to the collection having no enhancements and no polishing to a 2021 standard. The music on offer here is exactly how it was recorded at the time.

“We wanted to show this for our fans, we wanted to be honest with them,” Vogg explains when we enquire about the thinking about presenting The First Damned exactly how it was recorded at the time. “And we wanted to show them exactly how it was back in those days. We didn’t plan and that was the first goal. That was the first idea when we started to think about releasing this demo. There’s no mix, no remixing, no extra music, no extra mastering. There’s nothing that we were going to do to try to to help with the production sounding more modern, or having the modern days production tricks or anything like that. There was no other way to do it. We just wanted to show our audience our real first steps, exactly how it was in the past.”

And indeed it does. Their cover of SLAYER‘s Mandatory Suicide packs an almighty punch, Ereshkigal (one of two songs that were left on the cutting room floor and never made it on a full-length release) is embodied with the rawness of the typical old school death metal sound whilst it is executed with the utmost precision and adrenaline and Way To Salvation is a schizophrenic barrage of blast beats and dizzying riffs that ebb and flow ever so well. It’s very much the sense of lightning being captured in a bottle, showcasing the sheer potential of a band ready to make the world theirs. And it did. Quickly after the release of The Eye of Horus, the band were snapped up by Earache Records, a label that was influential in helping put death metal on the map, and from then, their ascendancy soared. Looking back, did Vogg ever anticipate things to snowball as quickly as they did?

“I remember I was scared but on the other hand, I was so excited, like, unbelievably excited because I had this feeling that something really important is going on. Like a kid is preparing to have some exam and finish school and go for a vacation, that’s all your life! And we didn’t go for a vacation, we had been going to the studio to record Winds of Creation for Earache Records which was still a really strong record label in the death metal world releasing MORBID ANGEL, BOLT THROWER, NAPALM DEATH and all those bands. So it was like, ‘wow!’ It was a shock. And then, you know, then everything exploded. And then we have Winds of Creation as our debut that received great reviews. And then we have the first European tour with IMMOLATION and stuff like that. It was crazy times! But yeah, it was a big shock, it was like jumping into deep water.”

A long time has passed since those early rumblings of aural extremity, and DECAPITATED are very much alive and kicking as 2017’s phenomenal Anticult proves. The band has grown and developed, sometimes forced and sometimes organically planned, but they are very much still a force in metal today as they were two decades ago. For Vogg, whilst revisiting the past has been very much a personal journey, for newer DECAPITATED fans, it’s the perfect opportunity to wind back the clock and experience the band at their most sonically raw and visceral. “The First Damned is representing our first steps with DECAPITATED. It has our first song, our first time being in the studio, our first time recording. It’s like the virgin steps of the band! And I’m glad that people dig it. I’m glad that people can enjoy it and I’m proud that we decided to refresh it in the way you can see. I mean, all these things with the layout, how it looks with the new cover, all the pictures inside. An amazing biography from Dom Lawson, all of these things makes this release fresh again and really interesting! It really can show the bigger picture of the band for the people that know us from Anticult, from Blood Mantra, from our latest releases. I think it’s an important release for our fans.”

The First Damned is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. 

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