Decapitated - Nihility

(12 Sep 2010)

Truth be told, for a long time I was pretty skeptic about getting this release. I had previously listened only to Spheres Of Madness and Eternity Too Short, and hated the former. The fact that I quite liked Eternity Too Short convinced me into buying this. At first, I couldn't get myself to listen to the album, because it had a very mediocre and boring opener, meaning that I wouldn't get to the second track before choosing to listen to something else.

In fact, I've already had the CD for over a month and have only actually given it a proper listen today, which also happens to have been my best decision of the day, since, once you get past the disappointment that is "Perfect Dehumanization (The Answer?)", you have yourself one truly crushing album and possibly Decapitated's creative peak.

Nihility doesn't actually pick up until the sort-of-title track "Nihility (Anti-Human Manifesto)", but after that, it does not let go, sending barrage after barrage of incredible riffs, mindblowing intricacy and this band's most interesting work.

The only two letdowns on Nihility are the opener and the production: everything is processed to the point that it is embarrassing to listen to. The bass drum sounds like something between popcorn popping and someone beating a wet bed sheet. The snare sounds like it would be more fitting on a hip-hop album. The guitar seems like it was put through Auto-Tune and Sauron sounds like he should be talking about cookies.

Luckily, the music more than makes up for the production and, to my surprise, I actually liked "Spheres Of Madness".

Standout tracks:

Eternity Too Short
Nihility (Anti-Human Manifesto)
Names
Babylon's Pride