Alright so we’ve got good news and we’ve got bad news.

The good new is, at long last, Decapitated are getting ready to release a new album. And Vince and I were fortunate enough to hear a couple of songs from this album a few weeks back, and we really, really liked what we heard. We think this band could be coming back in a really, really big way.

The bad news is that the album has a not-terrific title, Carnival is Forever, and some even-less-terrific album art. I know some people thought that the cover for Devin Townsend’s Deconstruction looked too nu-metally; I actually think this looks way nu-metallier (this immediately comes to mind). It’s not, like, the worst album art ever, it’s just… you’d envision something way more epic and classically DM for Decapitated’s big return to the scene, right?

But it really doesn’t matter what the album is called, or if they stick a picture of Gene Hoglan naked on the cover, so long as the music rocks. And, again, we have to reserve final judgment until we’ve heard the entire disc, but the two songs we did get to hear were very, very, very promising. So hopefully in a few years we’ll look back at this as “That incredible Decapitated album with the forgettable album art.”

Carnival is Forever comes out July 12 on Nuclear Blast.

-AR