Decayor | Live - Katy Dalys, Belfast

A new season of RocKD opens with two debuting bands keen to make their mark.  Swordchant are decent enough,  and their galloping celtic-ish metal style is obviously taking cues from Fermanagh’s Darkest Era. They’ve learned well enough, with a meaty Les Paul guitar sound belying their age and a good approach to songwriting. It’s more than you’d expect from a band of comparatively recent vintage, and there’s a chance that if they work hard enough, something approaching a Mael Mordha style might begin to appear.  The vocals need sorted though, and a choice has to be made as to whether they’re singing or shouting. At the minute its half of both, and a little monotonous.

Decayor though: what a pleasant surprise. Again belying their respective ages, this young three piece sound as if they were around at the dawn of Doom / Death. Their slow, cavernous death metal benefits from its almost crap, thick guitar tone, courtesy of pedal boards and all, to create the feeling of loving thrift that made records like ‘As The Flower Withers’ what they are. There’s influences from a host of 90s greats, the band look the part, and the guttural vocals are very, very cool. Aside from some technical problems - taken in good humour - its a confident enough performance when they’re all singing from the same sheet. Trios are often the best, and if Decayor can listen to the likes of what Indesinence are doing and just step up their game a little bit, they’ll be well worth watching, mark my words.

 - Ciaran Tracey ::: 14/08/08