DECADENCE – Chargepoint

Melodic Thrash Metal is an interesting subgenre that was created not too many years ago. Its emergence, especially in North America and Europe, made it to some extent an enigma. Unlike in the Old School days, Thrash Metal was created as a melodic subgenre, yet when various bands incorporated it with sparks of Heavy Metal, it became something else. Examples can be found on the Bay Area Heathen and the German Kreator. Later on, when the Swedish Melodic Death Metal rose up in Europe, it became evident that with all the aggressiveness of Thrash and Death Metal, melody was accepted as a nearby maturity stage as bands used it to enhance their power chord or alternate picking style riffs. When that process began and spread out, Melodic Thrash Metal, with its old and newfound roots, became a close relative to Melodic Death Metal, especially the modernized version of it.

That is why if you take Decadence and put it in front of Arch Enemy, you would find tons of aspects that are mutual between the two, nevertheless, the bottom line is, everybody is influenced by Thrash Metal as it is an old subgenre, much older than Death Metal (even the classic version).

Decadence, as one of the famous Melodic Thrash Metal bands out there, which preserved the newfound subgenre’s meaning with enchanting melodies crafted by pure talented players. As the band emerged in the land where the Gothenburg Death Metal ruled, the will to keep Thrash Metal alive was burning deep in the hearts of its founders. The outcome came up to be something pretty exciting and refreshing while melding first class melodies under both Old and New School style of semi-tech crunchy riffs (with massive influences of Melodic Death Metal, Old School Thrash of both US and EU and the late band Death), aggressive female growls and rasps made with great vocal ability by Kitty Saric aka Metallic Kitty (also the band’s manager). Moreover, another interesting feature, on their new album, Chargepoint, and on several occasions on their previous releases, Decadence even displayed parts derived from modern and classic Heavy Metal in close cooperation with the Melodic Death Metal essence, that is why songs on the second half of the album as “Fast Forward”, “Challenge” and “Be Home When I Am Gone” are so amazing while maneuvering between subgenres and different eras in Metal.

Other great examples of the band’s sheer energy in making semi-tech works are with tracks as “Silent Weapon (For A Quiet War)”, “Out Of The Ashes” and “Point Of No Return”. The latter is one of the most Death influential and close related songs on this album as it combines the melodies of the Swedish Death Metal scene with Death’s later rhythmic techniques issued on classic albums as Symbolic and the ultra famous Sound Of Perseverance. In addition to those there is the nice kicking opener of “Discharge”, the solid “Point Of No Return” and whoever will have the chance on getting his hands on the bonus impressive instrumental track of “The Demons Run”.

While all over the world the Swedish Melodic Death Metal became a positive epidemic, Decadence thought to use it to enhance and strengthen their cravings for Thrash Metal. Since 2003, they have been working hard and so far came out with good results. Their new contribution in the image of their fourth release, in six years of existence, Chargepoint, embraced with it a great promise to take them to the next step as a worldwide recognized Metal act. The fact that Decadence did what they wanted to perfect a musical style (on the rather extreme sense) made them a bit different from the other, yet there are close similarities as it was presented on the comparison to Arch Enemy. In future, if they would stick on creating a new kind of Thrash, they should take notice and try to minimize those similarities.

Highlights: “Silent Weapon (For A Quiet War)”, “Fast Forward”, “Challenge”, “Be Home When I Am Gone”, “Point Of No Return”, “Out Of Ashes”.