Review by Carl on October 20, 2024.

I have a theory, and it goes like this: I think that in Spain they have this law that says if you want to release a metal album, it first has to pass by Dave Rotten from Avulsed for approval. If he's down with it, you can release it. If he really likes it, he'll release it through his label, and if he loves it, he'll just join the band. That should be explanation enough for all the bands he's involved in, and one of the more recent ones is this Decrapted here.

And what is it that Decrapted brings to the table exactly? Well, death metal of course, but I have a hard time really understanding what the band is trying to do here. The music itself is varied enough, going from blasting rage to midtempo ravaging sections while mixing old school-isms with more contemporary takes on the genre, but the songs are all over the place, cramming in so many different parts and tempo changes that they dazzle my little mind. That the overall execution is excellent can't be denied, but personally, I don't get it. To me, this whole album sounds like a collection of midtempo riffs, eerie guitar melodies, occasional blastbeat-propelled parts, gurgling grunts, and guitar leads, seemingly being glued together randomly. There is no suspense being built up, and to me, the songs are simply happening, and that's just it. On top of that, most of the material plods along at a mid-tempo pace, which I don't find all that interesting either. While listening to this, I get the feeling that Decrapted is perhaps trying to get in with the Gatecreeper crowd, and no, I don't care for that.

But it's not all bad, though. For instance, the guitar solos are truly awesome, there's not one bad thing I can say about those. There are also the bubbling gutturals courtesy of Dave Rotten, sounding punishing as always, but here he alternates these with a really odd impression of John Tardy (Obituary), and this just sounds weird and forced to my ears. When it comes to the production, that one's passable when politely ignoring the plastic-sounding percussion, with the guitars sounding truly monstrous in a great way, though. Too bad these small spots of light fall short to really light up the overall performance by Decrapted, which remains a drab, mostly boring effort.

I don't think I will be having this one on heavy rotation here at my cabin in the woods. It's one of those releases that simply fails to grab me by the cohones in any way, despite showcasing a lot of elements that should be able to do so. Perhaps that it's a matter of taste on my part, but I vastly prefer the members' other endeavors such as Christ Denied, Unbounded Terror, and Putrevore.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10