What stood out to me immediately about the new Decapitated album ‘Cancer Culture’ were Wacław ‘Vogg’ Kiełtyka’s guitar solos. There are far more of them than on other recent Decapitated releases and most of them are surprisingly melodic or atmospheric. From there, ‘Cancer Culture’ gradually started to intrigue me more and more. It is a rare example of a modern death metal album that is highly creative without trying to sound smart or losing the aggression inherent to the genre. If anything, ‘Cancer Culture’ is the most aggressive album Decapitated released in a long time.

On the surface, ‘Cancer Culture’ may seem a similar type of groovy contemporary death metal album as its three predecessors. However, there is something different about the album. It is clearly the most dynamic album the band released since the death of original drummer and Kiełtyka’s younger brother Vitek. Possibly even more dynamic, because ‘Cancer Culture’ has a great deal of variation in the tempo department, expertly handled by newcomer James Stewart on drums. ‘Cancer Culture’ has some of the fastest moments in recent Decapitated history. Partly because of that, the groovy and atmospheric elements stand out more.

Although the album contains a number of highlights, ‘Just A Cigarette’ is one of the most incredible extreme metal tracks I have heard in a while. It alternates surprisingly melodic, at times almost black metal-esque tremolo riffs supported by blastbeats with extended clean passages which effectively make it a strangely paradoxical death metal ballad with a fantastic guitar solo. ‘Cancer Culture’ is full of those types of moments that subvert your expectations ever so slightly. Take ‘Hello Death’, which starts out like a violent mosher, only to suddenly open up for an almost Nevermore-ish section with clean vocals by Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmailyuk. The album constantly keeps you on your toes as a listener.

The other end of the spectrum contains ‘Locked’ and ‘No Cure’. The former is not even two minutes long and is carried by a twisted riff that would not have sounded out of place on Gorguts’ ‘Obscura’ album, the other an annihilating thrasher that comes closest to something the band could have done on one of their first four albums. In all honesty, I find most of the early Decapitated albums somewhat exhausting to listen to, but when moments like these are paired with groove monsters like the fantastic title track and ‘Iconoclast’ or atmospheric moments like the intense near-doom of ‘Hours As Battlegrounds’, you are suddenly left with an extremely listenable album.

‘Cancer Culture’ probably is not going to win back any fans who abandoned the band when their early technical hyperspeed death metal sound was traded for something a bit more groove-based. It is, however, an album with the potential to appeal to a very wide audience. Aggression, atmosphere, groove and even melody are excellently balanced on ‘Cancer Culture’ and complement each other perfectly. On these pages, I have often been fairly critical on the state of modern death metal, but Decapitated single-handedly shows the scene how a contemporary album in the style should be done.

Recommended tracks: ‘Just A Cigarette’, ‘Cancer Culture’, ‘Hello Death’