Decadence pour l'album "3rd Stage Of Decay"

Un gros coup de pied aux fesses thrash/death mélodique from Sweden, voilà le programme de Decadence sur leur dernier album en date, « 3d Stage Of Decay ». Thrashocore ne pouvait évidemment pas passer à côté de l'occasion d'aller taquiner la ravissante Kitty avec des questions à 3 centimes d'euros, celle-ci étant quand même plus avenante, même par email interposé, qu'un Shane Embury ou un Gene Hoglan (désolé pour nos lectrices qui aiment leurs hommes bien enrobés).

Hi Kitty ! The first question that is usually asked to young bands (even if « young » is not the perfect as far as Decadence is concerned) is: could you please tell us who you are, when you started, blablah ... To avoid that boring introduction, let's say that if there is something really unusual in Decadence's history, it is now the right place to tell us about it, otherwise can you tell us where you are right now, what you are currently doing and what's the weather like there ?

Hi there! Well, I'll just summarize those parts that I think could be interesting for an introduction here. Decadence was formed in Stockholm, Sweden in the year of 2003 and the members are: (me) Metallic Kitty (extreme vocals), Kenneth Lantz (1st guitar), Simon Galle (2nd guitar), Joakim Antman (bass) and Erik Röjås (drums) – indeed a young bunch of people between 20-24 years of age. Since 2003 we have released three full-length albums and one demo and are currently in the studio recording our 4th full-length album. Our latest album “3rd Stage of Decay” has been released in 3 editions and the latest one was released by Massacre Records in August this fall '08. We play something that we call Melodic Thrash Metal which 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.


That's really great that Massacre records has now officially released your formerly self-promoted, self-released album “3d Stage Of Decay”. But how does it feel to promote an album that is finally already two years old? I guess you must be happy but at the same time you might feel like “Hey, where were you in 2006 you blind people? It was already available at that time !”, right ?

Haha that is indeed something that keeps crossing our minds but the thing with “3rd Stage of Decay” is that we had the feeling that it would bring us something more than our previous works have and apparently we were right. When we joined forces with Massacre Records we had not yet planned what would happen with “3rd Stage of Decay”, if it would be re-released worldwide or left as it was – in 2 editions (limited original version, 2006 and Japanese version, 2007). Since both Decadence and Massacre Records wanted to re-release it worldwide in a 3rd version we agreed to do it as soon as possible due to the fact that Decadence is already in the studio recording our next album.


Now that “3d Stage Of Decay” can be enjoyed by a much broader audience, what about your older releases? Which one would deserve a re-issue according to you? Which one would need a re-mastering, or a new recording session? Are you especially proud/ashamed of some of them?

I can say that our first two albums (and our demo) are something that will stay under our own wings in the sense that there will not be re-releases like with “3rd Stage of Decay” on a broad scale. These albums will remain as a Decadence rarity like they are now and only available to purchase from our own online store “DecadenStore”: http://eshop.decadence.se. But, it is not impossible that they could be re-mastered for example. The decision about that is not set at this time but there will most likely come out something more out of them since the interest of those albums is still growing.


Some people has described your music as Arch Enemy-like stuff. Some see obvious Death influences, and some others relate to you as a pure thrash metal band ... Personally I see you as a 70% Scandinavian melodeath 30% Thrash metal band with an Arch Enemy kind of glue above it. What's your point of view about it? (“It's only pure fucking kick ass metal”, right ? ;) )

Pure kick ass Metal is one way to describe it yes! But also, as I said in my short introduction above, we call our music Melodic Thrash Metal. The deep roots in our music lie in Thrash Metal but are covered with inspiration from Melodic Death Metal. Another way to describe it is that our songs have the basis of speed in them while covered by harmonies all over. In the meantime they are technical and have the intensity of Thrash somewhere within them. The main song writers in Decadence (me and Kenneth Lantz) are both fans of the great 80's bay area Thrash and to mention some of the bands that have been inspiring to me when writing riffs I could say: Metallica, Death, Vader, Kreator, Testament, Megadeth, Cannibal Corpse, Children of Bodom, Annihilator, Tankard, Sodom, Slayer, Pantera, Exodus and so on. As you can see, the list mostly consists of various Thrash Metal bands with some exceptions. Our roots in Thrash and our influences of Death made us want to put this together and create something different with a new touch.


At least three songs (« Corrosion », « Claustrophobia », « Endgame ») feature some real typical thrash choirs, like it was usually done back in the early thrash metal days. Is it an explicit reference to these days, or did it come naturally, without really thinking about it ?

It did come naturally without a specific intention to be old school. A thing like that is something we do because we think it sounds good and fits the music.


That's great to have a strong support from a famous and successful band like Legion of the Damned! Can we expect a tour with both bands sharing the stages?

I can't say anything with certainty but if the chance would come up then we in Decadence would definitely be on it!


We have already mentioned the parallel that some people make between you and Arch Enemy on a musical level. Obviously, there is another reason for this comparison: both are female fronted bands ... with leaders having a really nice face (and I'm obviously here focusing only on pure politically correct matters :) ) !! Now that there are really many women in extreme metal, isn't it to irritating to always have some idiots (like me) mentioning this “female fronted” thing as if it was such a special feature? Metal seems to stay a quite masochistic world (and my first statement enclosed in brackets also shows that by the way ... hum, sorry for that ! ), what do you think?

It is of course great to see girls entering this area but I don't see this as a gender issue. For us in Decadence, the focus lies on making good music regardless of gender. People's opinions are however theirs to have and that doesn't bother us.


Some Japanese fans of Decadence have manufactured Metal Kitty dolls, just like it has been done for Kiss before (you can check that here). I guess it must be great to see oneself used as a model for designing dolls (... of course it depends of the kind of dolls ... hum !), but are you not a little bit afraid that this could add to the “female fronted band blablablah” thing that we have been discussing in the former question?

Well, when I see a doll inspired by an artist (in this case it happens to be myself) done by fans for fans, then I don't see it as an addition to the female fronted band label at all. As a matter of fact I don't see a reason for that connection at all.


I know there is a brand new album on the way ... What can you tell us about it right now ?

Yes you are right, we are in the studio now recording our 4th full-length album. The drum recording is complete and the rhythm guitar wall and bass are more than half way through. We actually planned to have this next coming album released this fall of '08 but since the unexpected re-release of “3rd Stage of Decay” appeared, we decided to postpone the next coming album at least a couple of months. The exact release date is in Massacre Records hands now. We do however apologize for this to our old fans that have been waiting since 2006 now (and are used to fast releases from us!) but we will make sure that it will be worth the wait! Described in one word, the new album will be Intense! It is our Melodic Thrash Metal taken to the next level, that's for sure.


Do you know/appreciate some French bands? What are your favourite albums at this time (and I'm of course not focusing on French music any more here) ?

You caught me off guard with that question so I'll probably miss out on mentioning some bands here but at least I can mention one of the bands that I do have in my collection here, and that is Agressor. Some of my most listened albums at this time are “Death Magnetic” – Metallica, “Enemy of God” – Kreator, “Symbolic” – Death and “The Strength/The Sound/The Songs” – Volbeat.


If you had to record your own version of a non metal song, which one would you pick up? And which of your songs would you choose if one of them had to be covered by a non metal artist? Who/what band would be the perfect interpreter then?

I think it would be a Michael Jackson song haha, which one I'm not sure though! Also, I'm not sure which artist I would choose for a non metal version of a Decadence song but I'd like it to be a symphonic version, as a movie theme or PC game theme.


A last silly question: what would/will be the winners of the following fights?


- Obama / Mc Cain
No comment, sorry!

- early The Haunted / early Soilwork
early The Haunted I think (even though none are close to my Thrasher taste!

- late Carcass / early Carcass
Don't know, I'm not familiar enough with them

- late Metallica / late Megadeth
Late Metallica!

- a nice fresh beer / a great red wine
None, I don't drink alcohol

- swimming in the sea / skiing on the mountains
Swimming in the sea

- recording in studio / performing on stages
Performing on stage

- death metal / thrash metal
Thrash Metal!

- American thrash / European thrash
at the time, European Thrash

- old school Swedish Death Metal from Stockholm / 2d wave Swedish Death Metal from Gothenburg
old school Swedish Death Metal from Stockholm

- Arch Enemy / Decadence ! :)
DECADENCE!


Thank you for having endured and answered my silly questions Kitty. You can now deliver your very own message if it has still not been delivered formerly in this interview.

Thank you and the readers as well for sharing this interview with me. I can end it by saying something that I say quite often to myself: If there's a will, there's a way.