''Carnival Is Forever'' is the fifth studio album by Polish

death metal Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...

band

Decapitated Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common ...

. It was released on 12 July 2011 via

Nuclear Blast Nuclear Blast Records is a German record label with subsidiary, subsidiaries located in Germany, the United States and Brazil. It was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Donzdorf. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label moved on ...

. ''Carnival Is Forever'' was produced by Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka with Daniel Bergstrand. ''Carnival Is Forever'' is Decapitated's first album to feature vocalist Rafał "Rasta" Piotrowski, and their only album to feature bassist Filip "Heinrich" Hałucha and drummer

Kerim "Krimh" Lechner Kerim "Krimh" Lechner (born 26 January 1989) is an Austrian musician, best known for his drumming work for Polish death metal band Decapitated. He is currently the drummer for Greek symphonic death metal band Septicflesh. Before joining Decapitat ...

Background

In 2009, after a period of disbandment,

's guitarist, composer and founding member Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka reformed the band with Austrian drummer

, vocalist Rafał Piotrowski, and bassist Filip "Heinrich" Hałucha. Throughout 2010, the band toured in Europe, United States, Australia and New Zealand. Decapitated entered RG Studio in

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

, Poland on 9 February 2011 to record ''Carnival Is Forever'', the follow-up to ''

Organic Hallucinosis ''Organic Hallucinosis'' is the fourth studio album by Polish death metal band Decapitated. The album was released on 7 February 2006 in the United States, on 13 February in Europe and on 22 February in Japan. The release was followed by European ...

'' (2006). The album was produced by Kiełtyka, and the drum tracks were recorded with Daniel Bergstrand. In order to achieve "the 'true', organic and natural sound", the band recorded with live drums (without using drum triggers) and without double guitar tracks. Several riffs on the new album were created with previous drummer Witold "Vitek" Kiełtyka. The almost two-month recording session finished on 31 March. The cover art was created by Łukasz Jaszak. The lyrics were contributed by Jarosław Szubrycht, the vocalist for Lux Occulta.

Critical reception

Eduardo Rivadavia of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

said " ..implausibly heavy, musically vicious and polyrhythmically busy numbers such as "The Knife," "United," "404," and "Pest" (all of which owe a trick or two to

Meshuggah Meshuggah () is a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Umeå in 1987. Since 2004, the band's lineup consists of founding members Jens Kidman (lead vocals) and Fredrik Thordendal (lead guitar), alongside rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström, drumm ...

Gojira is the original Japanese name for Godzilla, a giant monster at the center of a media franchise. It may also refer to: Films *Godzilla (franchise), ''Godzilla'' franchise, known as in Japan **Godzilla (1954 film), ''Godzilla'' (1954 film), relea ...

, and even

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

) appear to be at war with themselves—such is the instrumental complexity displayed by each musician as he fights to out-shred his bandmates." Dave Schalek of

About.com Dotdash Meredith (formerly The Mining Company, About.com and Dotdash) is an American digital media company based in New York City. The company publishes online articles and videos about various subjects across categories including health, hom ...

noted Decapitated musicians skills " ..the quality of the musicianship is as high as ever. Vogg’s riffing and staccato time changes are tight and flawlessly played, and drummer Krimh fills out the sound with perfect accompaniment to Vogg’s frenetic riffing." Scott Alisoglu of

Blabbermouth.net ''Blabbermouth.net'' is a website dedicated to metal and rock news, as well as album and music DVD reviews. It is run by the website's founder Borivoj Krgin. The first version of the website was launched in March 2001. In October 2001, the rec ...

also praised musicianship: "In what turns out to be an ace rhythm section, bassist Filip Halucha and Kerim "Krimh" Lechner deliver the rhythmic goods in the form of tight, acrobatic performances and some very colorful percussion that both contrasts and syncs up with all those gouging and biting Waclaw riffs."

Track listing

Personnel

Decapitated

* Rafał "Rasta" Piotrowski –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka –

guitars The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

* Filip "Heinrich" Hałucha –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

–

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Additional musicians

* Bartosz Hervy (

Blindead Blindead is a Polish progressive extreme metal band from Gdynia, formed in 1999 under the name Incorrect Personality. In 2011, the band was nominated for a Fryderyk Award in the category 'Album of the Year – Heavy Metal'. Band members ; Curr ...

) – keyboards

Production

* Jarosław Szubrycht – lyrics * Daniel Bergstrand – mixing, drum production * Arkadiusz "Malta" Malczewski –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

* Rickard Sporrong – mastering * Łukasz Jaszak – cover, design, photos * Wojciech Kiełtyka – consultant, help, lyric revision

Charts

Release history

References

External links

Drum-Tracking Footage From The Studio - Mar. 25, 2011
Studio preview for SickDrummerMagazine.com at Blabbermouth.net. {{Authority control 2011 albums Decapitated (band) albums Nuclear Blast albums