Some bands have been devoted to trying to mix brutality with melody and some of them have managed to become some of the most well known bands in the Metal scene. DECADENCE are probably trying to achieve the same thing with their melodic Thrash/Death Metal.

Formed in 2003, the Swedish act issued its first demo in 2004, while two independent full-length albums were released in 2005. The first album that was issued through a label was 3rd Stage Of Decay, which was actually first released in 2006 through HTI Records. Massacre thought that re-releasing it would be a good idea.

The first track of the album was familiar to me, since Corrosion, which features a guest appearance of Chris Astley of XENTRIX appears on Thrashing Like A Maniac, a compilation of Thrash bands issued by Earache Records. So, what is it that makes DECADENCE special to some people? Could it be the fact that they have a female singer who screams until her lungs explode? Nah, ARCH ENEMY and many more bands do the same thing. DECADENCE have nothing special if you ask me...

What we have here is a nice melodic Thrash/Death band that sounds close to ARCH ENEMY, THE DUSKFALL and such kind of  bands in general with some good ideas here and there but nothing that makes them differ from the average melodic Thrash/Death scene. There are some riffs that kick ass, there are some breaks that make you want to smash everything down, but the album as a whole sounds like a mediocre ARCH ENEMY release. And at least ARCH ENEMY have a killer guitarist with bone crushing leads.