While Indiana's Signs of Decay may not be the most original band to grace my speakers, their brand of death/thrash metal works great and carries a welcome old school vibe.
The first thing many people would notice about this band would be the vocals, which sound almost identical to The Great Southern Trendkill era Phil Anselmo. I know it's frowned upon on this site, but I happen to like Pantera, and if it wasn't for them, I'd never have delved further into heavy metal as a genre. So maybe I like the voice purely for the nostalgia, but I think it actually works really well over the pounding double bass and death/thrash riffs. For their first demo, it's actually produced extremely well. The monstrous low end adds a great rumble to the crushing fast paced riffs found throughout the all too short duration.
If I have any complaint, it'd be that Shadow Within goes on a tad too long, the re intro wasn't needed and seemed to just artificially lengthen the track. Also, the lyrics are pretty juvenile, but that's nothing to take points off for (unless it's cripplingly stupid like Into Eternity or something). Everything else works really well to me. I can't really gab off too long about a ten minute demo, so I'll wrap it up quickly. The vocals are (at least to my ears) reminiscent of mid nineties Phil Anselmo, the drums are nothing spectacular, but they never seem out of time or tedious, so that's a plus. The riffs are catchy for the most part and there are enough to keep one interested throughout the duration of the record. Not recommended to people who despise any minuscule semblance to Pantera, but recommended to pretty much anybody else. Honestly, the vocals are really the only Pantera-esque aspect, the rest is pure death/thrash intensity.
RATING - 88%
Wow, how on Earth did you come across this demo? I played guitar in this band throughout its life time, loads of fun with these dudes.
ReplyDeleteHow goes it, Blackacid? You might remember me as FlamesofNibelheim from the (somehow still alive despite the site being dead for years) Powertab forums. In all honesty, I never physically owned this demo as I was 16 years old and unemployed when you released it, but I managed to swipe the tracks from the old Myspace and add it to iTunes that way. It's been a long while since I've listened to it but your comment inspired me to give it another go and yup, I still like it just as much. And I can't shake that Pantera vibe at all, but like I said, it isn't a bad thing to me at all, the music is good and brutal but those vocals really recall mid 90s Anselmo.
DeleteI actually wrote this back in February of 08 if I'm not mistaken, so as for the actual review it's one of my older ones that I'm not particularly fond of since I feel like I've just improved by miles as a writer since then. But anywho, enough about myself. Thanks for the comment, it's always cool when I get band contact, but this is the first time it's also been an old internet friend, haha.
Anyway, what've you been up to lately? The wonderful internet tells me you're not with Legion anymore, any other projects you've been working on?