THE BAND: who are Decadence?
Decadence is one of the representatives of the new generation of
Thrash Metal. Like classic Thrash we love the intensity and speed but
we are adding melodic art and technicality to our genre which we call
Melodic Thrash Metal (more about it below). Decadence is a
young band formed in November of 2003 in Stockholm, Sweden. The concept
was created by the band's vocalist and manager Metallic Kitty and since
that time we has worked hard on creating albums and playing live. We
are usually seen as a live band so if Decadence would be presented to
someone new to us, a live show would definitely be the place to do it.
We love being crazy on stage, headbanging, connecting with the fans
and simply have a good time with what we love doing the most.
Death Metal is already dominating the Metal scene. Scandinavia is flooding
with all Melodic Death Metal bands and the scene will grow even further
and even faster in the nearest future. That makes Decadence' goal to
strengthen the Thrash Metal scene, with a new touch but still in the
roots of the old, great, Bay Area. The Thrash Metal scene needs support
and we will do our best to help it out.
THE SOUND: melodic thrash metal?
We have worked hard on this genre that we call Melodic Thrash Metal. It
is like the bridge where Thrash and Melodic Death meet. This genre can
be described as Thrash Metal with the heaviness of melodic Death Metal
without keyboards. An addition of extreme, aggressive female vocals
and growl techniques as well as Thrash Metal screams is added to the
mix. The combination of these effects along with the new touch of Thrash
Metal gives a specific sound which is what defines Decadence.
This will describe the bands' overall sound quite well. The riffs have a Thrash
Metal basis but we have added a melodic touch to them as well as extreme,
aggressive female vocals instead of what would be heard on clean vocal based
Thrash sounds. The keyboards are replaced by harmony lines made by guitar.
We recommend Decadence music to people who appreciate bands like Death, Kreator,
Testament, Metallica and the like.
THE MEMBERS: who plays in the band?
The band members are young people born between 1983-1988:
- Metallic Kitty (extreme vocals)
- Kenneth Lantz (1st guitar)
- Erik Röjås (drums)
- Joakim Antman (bass)
- Niklas Skogqvist (2nd guitar)
THE ALBUMS: how about decadence albums?
Decadence has released four full-length albums and one demo as follows:
( 4 ) Chargepoint (2009)
( 3 ) 3rd Stage of Decay (limited-2006), 2nd
edition (Japanese-2007) and 3rd edition (worldwide-2008)
( 2 ) The Creature (2005)
( 1 ) Decadence (2005)
( 0 ) Land of Despair (2003) Read more
about our albums and music here
THE LABELS: which record labels does decadence cooperate with?
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Kenneth Lantz is our sound technician. He is responsible for all
of our studio work which gives Decadence its own specific sound. If
you have any questions concerning sound, studio etc. Feel free to contact
him here.
THE STORY 2003-2008
| 2003 |
Before Decadence time, Metallic Kitty had been asked to join a project known
as Dekapitera which led to nothing but a dead-end. This was her original plan
for a pure Melodic Death Metal band with influences form the Finnish Death Metal
scene with "Heavy Dose" (which was later given to Decadence) as its
only song at the time. Dekapitera was also from where the name Decadence later
evolved.
Metallic Kitty decided to move on and and by impulse she came
to audition a band originally started by the former guitarists of Decadence:
Christian Lindholm and Niclas Rådberg. They had quit their their first
band Devastator to form this new band and asked the drummer Peter Lindqvist
(who they met on on a gig) if he wanted to join up in their plans and he accepted.
As Kenneth Lantz often followed Metallic Kitty to band practices
with this new band he ended up being the session bass player as a side project
of his band Demented where he was the guitarist.
The band was now completed and quickly got gigs and as the
first gig came so fast they had to make up a band name as soon as possible and
that was when the band decided to make an official name and it ended up being
Metallic Kitty's old idea: Decadence.
After about half a year had passed, Peter decided he would
quit Decadence. He had two other bands (A-Bros and Canopy) and due to lack of
time for a third band he decided that he would focus fully on the both of them
since Decadence was still in the early developing stage and he had not enough
faith and motivation for it.
| 2004 |
The year began with Decadence auditioning drummers. When two months had passed,
Metallic Kitty found drummer Patrik Frögéli and he joined the band.
Once again the band was completed, in February. A few weeks later Decadence
completed their first demo, "Land of Despair", still with Peter Lindqvist
on drums. Kenneth Lantz recorded and mixed the whole demo during a stressful
time limit. The demo is currently only available in limited quantities.
However, the problems continued growing in the band. Christian
Lindholm was to join the military service and it caused a division in
the band with him and Niclas Rådberg on one side and Metallic Kitty,
Kenneth Lantz and Patrik Frögéli on the other. About a month
later, Decadence separated ways with both guitarists. Session bassist
Kenneth Lantz then joined the band as the new lead guitarist, quit his
band Demented and put Decadence on a higher priority level than before.
Decadence then started auditioning bassists and rhythm guitarists.
Bassist Roberto Vacchi Segerlund joined after about a month (since he
had been in contact with the band before concerning the drummer replacement
that went to Patrik Frögéli) and rhythm guitarist Mikael Sjölund
joined after about three months, the fall of 2004. Decadence had now completed
their second line-up.
| 2005 |
In March of 2005 Decadence completed their first fullength album entitled "Decadence",
once again with Kenneth Lantz behind the recording. It was a success for the
band and the gigs started flowing. This was the year when the name was brought
up to the public and the word started spreading fast about the band.
After almost a year's gigging and touring Decadence went through
a major update once again. There had been plenty of arguments and internal problems
in the band. The new members' personal chemistry began causing conflict and
the band was having a hard time holding things together. After the summer tour
in 2005, Metallic Kitty had gotten huge health issues due to all the stressful
situations that were caused by these problems and, after a serious band meeting,
she finally replaced Mikael Sjölund by Daniel Green and Roberto Vacchi
Segerlund by Joakim Antman in June. Patrik Frögéli was also replaced
by Erik Röjås in August the same year and everything calmed down.
Metallic Kitty felt that after this situation it was time to
give Decadence all strength needed to secure it once and for all. In November,
Decadence had once more completed a new album, their second fullength, entitled
"The Creature" which is often referred to by fans and reviewers as
"the aftermath of violence".
| 2006 |
The year began with a negative repetition of the curse with the band member
changes. The four current members (Metallic Kitty, Kenneth Lantz, Joakim Antman
and Erik Röjås) had grown strong together but Daniel Green was slowly
sliding away from Decadence goals and work. Together, Decadence took the hard
decision to part ways with ex-rhythm guitarist Daniel Green in March of 2006
to keep the peace that the four tight members had gotten together.
Instead of rushing another guitarist in the band again, Decadence
decided to slowly search for the right person this time. The band decided to
play with a session guitarist until the right person for the job appeared. Ulf
Sörman of Castillion then joined as a session guitarist for five shows.
In October of 2006, Decadence officially announced their signing
to Metallic Kitty's newly started indie record label HTI Records and the 2nd
of November in 2006, Decadence completed their third fullength album entitled
"3rd Stage of Decay", once again with Kenneth Lantz behind the recording.
The title symbolized the band's 3rd and strongest line-up it had ever had had
and the whole album was as secure as the band itself.
| 2007 |
Metallic Kitty found guitarist Simon Galle and he soon joined as the new session
guitarist working his way up to a stable place in Decadence. The band was happy
to offer him a permanent place in Decadence the 26th of July 2007 and welcome
him to the family.
The year continued going on its positive path and it followed
with Decadence licensing "3rd Stage of Decay" (2nd edition) to Japanese
label Spiritual Beast and distribution through Universal Japan. This was the
first time that Decadence music started to seriously spread even further than
the underground which had been its home up until then.
| 2008 |
Earache Records showed interest in Decadence and used the track "Corrosion"
from "3rd Stage of Decay" on their 2008 "best of new school
Thrash Metal" compilation "Thrashing Like A Maniac" and
shortly thereafter Decadence gave a future license to Massacre Records
for worldwide distribution of "3rd Stage of Decay" (3rd edition
of the album) and more albums to come.
Just before the completion of the new album, Simon Galle suddenly and
without warning left the band. His own words were: "Sup everyone...
I feel now that I've been here and done this for a while and I feel satisfied,
I apologize to the people that wanted to hear more of my guitar playing
but I feel that I had enough, and my lust for this is gone - therefore
it would be bad both for me and the rest if I kept on going doing something
that takes more energy than it gives. I'm still going to be proud when
Decadence takes over the world though. I'm going to try for sports now.
Love to all the good people I met on the road!". He will be missed
but we all wish him luck with sports and whatever he wishes to do in the
future. Decadence is down to its solid quartet once again.
| 2009 |
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