There are few teenagers who haven’t harboured dreams of starting their own band, but the ones who actually succeed in getting beyond a few jam sessions in their garage are very few and far between. This makes the story of Decapitated all the more impressive. The death metal band formed in Krosno, Southern Poland, in 1996, when the band members (Vitek on drums, Martin on bass, Vogg on guitar and Sauron the vocalist) were at music school and were an average age of just 14. They released their first demo 'Cemeteral Gardens' in June 1997, following it up in October 1998 with ‘The Eye of Horus’. Working hard on the road they soon became an established live act throughout Poland, starting to prove that they were not just a novelty act.

This hard work and dedication soon attracted labels to the band and signing a deal with Massive Management (home also to Vader) soon led to their partnership with Wicked World/Earache for the release of their debut album. 'Winds of Creation’ was released in April 2000 and the album impressed many with the complexity of the composition, riffs - and the brutality of pure death metal at its best. It immediately gained them attention from death metal fans and after a successful tour of the UK with grind band Lock Up, Decapitated were voted 'Best Newcomer' in Terrorizer Magazine's 2000 Reader's Poll. A European tour in 2001 with Immolation continued to build their reputation, followed by tours with Enslaved and Vader and other heavyweights of the scene.

‘Winds of Creation’ was followed up by a ‘Best of’ compilation, ‘The First Damned’ through Metal Minds in 2000. A collection of the songs from their demos and unreleased tracks, it’s really only for the avid fan.

2002 saw the release of second studio album ‘Nihility’ through the Earache label. This album saw the band start to cement their own definite style, moving away from the slightly more organic sound of ‘Winds’, producing instead their own brand of technical death metal – cold, precise and brutal.

Their most recent album, ‘The Negation’ was released in 2004, also through Earache. Like many bands with a few albums under their belt it attracted the inevitable ‘it’s not as good as their early albums’ comments, along with praise for their continually developing style. The band geared the sound of this album more towards the live environment – bassist Martin stating in an interview with ‘Wicked World’ at the 2004 gig at The Underworld, UK, that the “new songs are maybe a bit less technical than what we did before. It’s still technical but we made things a bit simpler and the songs are much better to play live than the old stuff.”

For a band that place great importance on touring, the direction on ‘The Negation’ seems a natural progression and this greater simplicity and more direct sound make it a good place to start for a newcomer to the band. For the creative process everything starts with the riff, with Vogg, the guitarist, mainly responsible for the song writing process. Riffs are followed by drums, then bass and finally vocals, all of which the whole band contributes to. Lyrics are the left to vocalist Sauron.

Decapitated have managed by the time that many bands are just starting out, to become an established and important part of the death metal scene – an ever developing and evolving act at the forefront of modern death metal.