Decapitated’s feral, precision-forged debut Winds Of Creation returns for its 25th anniversary. Now available for the first time ever in a CD Digipak edition.
Before they were hailed as technical death metal titans, Decapitated were just a group of Polish teenagers sharpening their teeth on something far heavier than their peers could handle — a raw hunger and frightening precision captured in full force on Winds Of Creation, now celebrating its 25th anniversary with a brand new CD Digipak edition for the first time ever.
Released when the band members were barely out of high school, Winds Of Creation doesn’t sound like a debut as much as it sounds like a warning shot. Drawing from the ferocity of Morbid Angel, the razor-sharp attack of Slayer (they even take on “Mandatory Suicide” with terrifying ease), and the mechanical brutality of Vader, Decapitated quickly carved out their own space with a sound both feral and fiercely technical.
Tracks like the pummeling “Blessed” and eerie standout “Dance Macabre” set the tone for what would become a signature approach: blistering speed, unrelenting precision, and an undercurrent of eerie sophistication. Critics took notice too. Matthias Sheaks of AllMusic praised the album’s “extremely solid” songwriting, noting how its standout tracks elevated it beyond the usual chaos.
Formed in 1996, Decapitated would go on to release seven genre-defining albums, with guitarist Wacław "Vogg" Kiełtyka at the helm as both architect and executioner. But Winds Of Creation remains a pure distillation of intent — a debut that didn’t just hint at greatness, it screamed it. Twenty-five years on, it still hits like a revelation.