You’ve probably searched far and wide to get a halfway decent copy of the much exalted early demos by Decapitated and you might have been disappointed in what you were able to find. For years, fans of Decapitated have been clamoring for a proper release of these late 90’s tracks and finally we are able to get them in a complete, professional format that you’ll really want to take note of.
1998’s “The Eyes of Horus” is the first full track on the LP and it will not disappoint. I wasn’t expecting such a decent mix and I love the snare sound. Indeed, this song, like of all of songs on this record are not remixed or remastered, but there is a nice clarity to hearing a track that has not been degraded by numerous iterations of sharing and copying. The second song, “Blessed” also has a great sound to it. It’s raw, but enjoyably sonically. In fact, I rather prefer hearing these songs the way they really recorded in the previous century. What’s pretty astounding is that this band sounded so tight and so together at such a young age. The fact that the band recorded these songs on Digital Audio Tape (DAT) was definitely helpful in keeping the sound clear. I’d imagine that we wouldn’t be getting such clarity had the band gone analog when they entered the recording studio.
“Destiny” from 1997 is a track that you can’t help but love. It bridges a lot of that thrash influence with the death metal scene that was, unfortunately, headed on the downwind in the late 90’s (thanks Nirvana). But there was a lot of death metal released in the late 90’s that was actually really good and this track reminds me of that epoch in metal history. Speaking of the 90’s, you can’t help but love the keyboards on “Way to Salvation,” also from ’97. That song’s got a killer solo as well.
“Cemeteral Gardens” has already been released on YouTube and you can check it out here for yourself:
And yes, the rest of the demo songs sound that good. No doubt this is essential for fans of these native Poles.
You can order The First Damned from Nuclear Blast records right here. It’s available on cassette, LP and digipak. I would definitely recommend it without any hesitation. It releases on June 4, 2021.
