To be honest I have been a bit bored musically lately, sure I have listened to a lot of great metal as usual, but I haven’t had that wow-feeling that reminds why I love metal for some time, and I was wondering: “am I starting to lose faith?”
I can assure you the answer is “NO!”. First time I gave “3rd Stage of Decay” a spin I knew I was in for something special. Aggressive thrash-riffs were blowing out of my speakers accompanied by superb and technical drumming. The growling of “Metallic Kitty” (cheesy name) gave me goosebumps, this girl really knows how to turn her inside out but also knows when to tune the brutality down and deliver a more aggressive thrashy vocal approach, but mainly she uses middle- pitched growls, but she can hit the lower and higher notes too.
The guitars deliver technical shredding, I am listening to the first great riff after the other, but what really knocked over is the soloing which remind a lot of Chuck Schuldiner's work (R.I.P). In fact a lot of 3rd Stage Of Decay reminds of “Death”; extremely tight drumming which delivers a lot of different moods and tempos, while the guitars suddenly turns atmospheric after some aggressive shredding only to deliver yet something new and surprising to the soundscape.
This album will apply to fans of everything from thrash to technical death metal. Decadence is very aggressive but yet they have melodic vocal lines and guitar harmonies. They claim to combine thrash metal with melo death (but without keyboards), well that’s true, but I think they have a lot more to offer, I will not put these guys and girl in a box, because the music really speaks for itself (www.myspace.com/decadenceswe).
If you like bands like: “Death, “Control Denied” and technical thrash/death, you’ll need to check this out. I know I will be looking forward to a fourth album.
Brilliant work!
