Display Of Decay hails from Edmonton (Canada) and have been around since 2007. Focusing on a great blend of old school death and thrash metal with a hint of doom, the band have been playing allover Canada in the past few years. 'Dust Of Existence', their latest album, is a nice example of how the band processed these influences. If you're a fan of bands like Deicide, Cannibal Corpse and Immolation, you should check this out.
Display Of Decay doesn't need intros or elaborate arrangements to make their statement. In stead, they immediately kick off with the blasting 'Created To Kill', which seems like a perfect way to describe the music this quintet is smashing into my skull right now. At times repetitive riffs and drums have an almost hypnotic effect on the listener, even if the tempo often changes.
That repetitive aspect often returns, hinting at industrial metal as well as the previously mentioned influences. This gives the music an extra sense of intensity, which is already pretty damn high. Add the growling insanity of the vocals and you really end up with something fearsome and addictive. 'Messiah' for instance, is a brilliant piece of inhuman extreme metal. ' High Voltage Castration' does that even better and becomes one of my favorites on this album.
Another striking aspect is the sound of the bass guitar. It again reminds me of some industrial acts, cold, dry and mechanical, almost slapping at times. Yet, it's exactly that sound that gives these songs an extra touch and quite an interesting one indeed. Not that the other instruments are inferiour, not at all. It's quite curious how these guys can come up with different sounds for nearly everything. Just listen to the amazing song 'Maruta', a rolling beast of torture and punishment, so to speak.
I admit, it took me several listens before I truly started understanding how versatile and great this album really is. At first it does feel like another album in the vein of the bands I mentioned earlier. Yet, gradually it becomes clear that Display Of Decay isn't just copying and pasting influences. No, they made it their own sound, filling a small niche within the world of death metal. In 'Cellar Goreatory' for example, they viciously attack our necks with an irresistible headbanging assault.
In all, this is a very interesting piece of death metal. Just when you think the tradition version of the genre has been exhausted, this quintet makes it relevant again by coming up with quite an original approach. Some of these riffs surely make Dimebag smile in approval up there in metal-heaven, and right beside him Chuck Schuldiner goes nuts over the technical qualities. Again, so to speak. Fact remains that we're dealing with a great death metal album which perfectly controls the chaos that this genre can be.
Serge