Beheaded – Beast Incarnate (Review)

Beheaded are a death metal band from Malta and this is their fifth album.

Beheaded have produced a solid, enjoyable slab of intense death metal with Beast Incarnate. Make no mistake, this will flatten you and stomp on your remains.

The songs are fast, brutal and take no prisoners. This is brutal death metal played with confidence, gruesome style and the skill of veterans.

The album flows and ebbs surprisingly well for what essentially amounts to a repeated punch in the face. The songs are all very satisfying examples of the butcher’s art given harsh musical form.

Beheaded certainly know how to write a kicking riff too when they want to. As for the singer, he has an inhuman roar and puts in a sterling performance.

I also like that the band aren’t one-trick ponies and the brutality they offer up on Beast Incarnate has several different shades of nastiness. The Black Death is a great example of this – at eight minutes in length it’s the longest song on here and goes through several different moods and forms throughout the playing time, including atmospheric build-ups, fast aggression, winding dirge and slow, crushing riffery. Top stuff.

Apart from the fact that the songs themselves are very good, they also sound absolutely huge thanks to the very strong production on the album. Beheaded sound strong and monstrous, just as you would want them to.

At 40 minutes in length the album runs just right; it doesn’t outstay its welcome and actually leaves you wanting more, so satisfying is the band’s brutality.

The music is a timeless brand of death metal, taking influence from most eras of the style in one way or another. It all comes together well in the hands of this veteran band, who compile the punishing riffs and pounding drums into eight tracks of highly competent barbarism.

This is a first-rate death metal album, delivered by veterans that know the style inside out.

Beast Incarnate is a strong start to 2017 for the death metal scene, and Beheaded have raised the bar high.