Within a few short years Decapitated have risen from being hotly-tipped newcomers to being one of the most widely lauded death metal bands on the planet. In particular, the UK has really developed a passion for the Polish quartet. We caught up with bassist Martin backstage at London’s Camden Underworld, just before the band played the final show of their recent UK headlining tour (which also featured recent Wicked World signings Anata, Greek legends Rotting Christ and homegrown black metal heroes Thus Defiled) to talk about death metal, accordions and vodka.

How is the tour going so far? “It’s been great so far. We’ve really enjoyed it. The shows have all been really good and it's our first real headlining tour over here so it’s been a great experience for us.” You’ve been to the UK numerous times now. How important has this country been to Decapitated? “It’s probably the most important country for us. We realise that you have to work really hard to win people over, so we’ve tried to come back as often as we can and play the same places over and over again. We always have a really good time here and the crowds are getting bigger.” Have you been surprised by how well your albums have been received here? “We didn’t expect to be as popular as we are but we don’t really think about that kind of thing. The most important thing is that we’re happy with the way our albums sound.” How pleased are you with ‘The Negation’? “It’s exactly how we wanted it to be. The songs are much better. We’ve had a lot of experience of playing live now and we know what people want to hear. That’s why 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.” How do you feel about being described as “the best death metal band in the world”? “It’s good to get positive reviews, but really we don’t care what people say about us. We have to satisfy ourselves first and as long as we continue to be happy with the music we make then people can say whatever they like!” Who do you think is the best death metal band in the world? “We all love the classic old Florida bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide and Cannibal Corpse. That’s the stuff we grew up listening to and I still don’t think you can beat that stuff. The new Deicide album is really good but my favourite is ‘Once Upon The Cross’. That’s the most extreme Deicide album, isn’t it? Another band we really like is Hate Eternal. They’re just so brutal and Derek Roddy is a perfect musician. You don’t get many of those.” When Decapitated first emerged the death metal scene was in decline. What do you think of the death metal scene now? “When we came out everyone was really into black metal and that whole scene was really big. But in Poland it has always been death metal that has been the biggest underground metal style. I don’t know what happened since we started playing but now there’s a lot of really cool death metal bands again. It’s great for us!” Have you ever thought about experimenting with different musical styles? “No. Decapitated will always be a death metal band and we will never change the way we sound. There’s a lot we can do without adding new styles.” What do you think the next album will sound like? “It’s far too early to say. It depends on how Vogg is feeling when he writes the riffs! We’ve only just finished this album so it will be a long time before we start working on the next one.” Three of you study music at home in Poland. Has that been a big influence on your music? “I guess so. I’ve learned a lot about how different styles of music work, like classical music and jazz. The more you know about the music, the better you will be as a musician. We can all play different instruments, too. I have learnt to play piano and classical guitar and Vogg can play the accordion!” Is there any chance of some accordion on the next Decapitated album? “No. Definitely not.” You’ve spent a lot of time on the road over the last few years. Have you turned into rock ‘n’ roll animals? “We do like a drink and a smoke but I don’t know if we’re rock ‘n’ roll! The first thing that happened when we got on the bus for this tour was pretty rock ‘n’ roll. We’d all been drinking a lot on the plane on the way over and Sauron got on the bus and puked everywhere. All the other bands seemed to avoid us after that!” Who's the biggest alcoholic in the band? “Probably Sauron!” What’s the most stupid thing any of you have done while drunk on tour? “I can’t think of one. There's too many stupid stories! We used to be quite drunk when we went on stage sometimes, but we have a real career now so we need to take things a bit more seriously. Smoking's cool, though!” Finally, it's time to invent the official Decapitated cocktail: “OK, you need some vodka, obviously, and some raspberry juice. Then add a bit of Tobasco sauce. That's a really popular drink in Poland at the moment.”