DECRAPTED – Bloody Rivers Of Death

RELEASE YEAR: 2022

BAND URL: https://facebook.com/Decrapted/

This review is the 3rd in the 5 album expose on the work of Palma de Mallorca Spanish vocalist, guitarist and bassist Vicente Javier Payá Galindo, the creator the creator of 5 metal bands: Golgotha, Unbounded Terror, Decrapted, Bis.nte and Sons Of Cult – all currently on David Sánchez “Dave Rotten” González’s Xtreem Records or its sundivision Fighter Records. Every review in the series will concern each of those bands’ latest album in the above order. The following review is the last this year (whether or not it ends up published still in 2022) with the Bis.nte and Sons Of Cult coming up next year.

Decrapted is a brand new brutal death metal band from Vicente Payá (guitars, bass) and Avulsed’s vocalist David Sánchez “Dave Rotten” González (vocals) so “Bloody Rivers Of Death”, featuring one of the finest covers in the genre courtesy of Ukrainian artist Daemorph Art, is their first album and what an album it is! Again, I am continuously blown away how Vicente, always the guitarist for all his projects, sounds completely different from band to band, and it’s especially amazing how Decrapted sounds nothing like Unbounded Terror despite sharing some of the same influences such as Immolation or Obituary, which is a mark of a musical genius. As much as I love Vicente’s work on Golgotha and Unbound Terror, it is in Decrapted that he shows himself as a severely underrated guitarist with excellent solos and fills bordering on virtuosic even if here aided by session guitarist Camilo Pirata. As for Dave Rotten, his frightening fantastic vocals are an amalgamate of John Tardy on Obituary’s “Slowly We Rot”, Chuck Schuldiner’s on “Spiritual Healing” and Niels Adams’ (Prostitute Disfigurement) and they add additional appeal to this crushing and unforgiving sound (bolstered by horiifying lyrics written by no other but Rogga Johansson) which is to say that they are almost like another instrument. The producer of the album, Miquel Angel Riutort “Mega” (Golgotha) laid down the drums and they sound absolutely amazing. Had this 8 track nearly 34 minute affair been all about brutal relentless death metal, I doubt you’d have seen a score as high as this, though, so, obviously and thanfully it is more than that.

The album surely does start like a rather brutal slam death affair but even in the opening “Bleeding Devourment” it relies already on a very groovy, excellent, memorable and fiercely original riff, but it’s “Forcefed Human Flesh” and “Cook On The Stake” which bring Immolation’s “Majesty & Decay” to mind in terms of catchy yet dark melodies and torn, aggressive riffs resembling a lethally wounded animal striking at his captors with all its remaining soul. In the favorite “Bloody Cave” Decrapted surprisingly waxes latter Deathly in terms of melody and progressively psychedelically doomish weird a’la Esoteric, and it’s a pity there’s only one track of that sort. Finally, the closing “Meat Truck” has so many changes of pace from steady and motoric to brutal to brutal fast which recalls early Nile it approaches the excellence of “Forcefed” and “Cook” in terms of power, melody and memorability. Of note is also almost traditionally paced “Ravenous” where Dave outdoes even himself vocally. No wonder he has been a part of so many death metal projects, one of the most original, effective and decipherable vocalists in the genre.

What doesn’t quite work for me on this fairly even album (in terms of quality of the first side vs. the second) are “Headless Haunting” and “As the Horror Comes”. Not only are they sandwitched between the standouts (which make their flaws standout that much clearer) but they seem al dente (undercooked). The former does bring Nile to mind and has a sudden thrashy shift for a solo but in the end it needs more variation and the latter, while a bit more varied, is reminiscent of Gojira and “Human” Death (solo!) but desingtegrates in its own footprint like World Trade Center towers would have had it been a controlled demolition, which they didn’t because it wasn’t. On that note, “As Horror…” does have something of that, a demolition that may have been too controlled.

In all, “Bloody Rivers Of Death” is still one of the best debuts in death metal and and the fantastic Vicente and Dave prove that they may be metal’s Midases – everything they touch is solid gold. I do expect the experimentation of “Bloody Cave” to spill all over the follow up which I shall await eagerly. Highly recommended.