1351 - Decapitated Carnival Is Forever 2011

In 2009, after a period of disbandment, Decapitated's guitarist, composer and founding member Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka reformed the band with Austrian drummer Kerim "Krimh" Lechner, vocalist Rafał Piotrowski, and bassist Filip "Heinrich" Hałucha. Decapitated entered RG Studio in Gdańsk, Poland on February 9, 2011, to record "Carnival Is Forever". This lumbering and epic title track starts at an uneasily still point, a stuttering, repetitive clean arpeggio building off its own presence until, after a little under a minute, the tunes’ chunky main riff arrives, sucking up all the misty ambience created and bowling over everything in its path. And while a riff this dense is pretty impressive on its own, the way drummer Krimh frames it keeps it moving and versatile: it comes up multiple times over the course of “Carnival is Forever”’s remaining eight minutes, but never sounds dwarfed by repetition. Without resorting to unnecessary orchestration or belabored minor key emoting, the song is powerful and affecting.