Truth Decayed - Modern Day Illusion

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Thrash Metal carries a special set of musical hooks that binds the listeners. From the melodic approach of METALLICA to the oppressive aggressiveness of SLAYER, and the brutality of the German trio (namely KREATOR, SODOM and DESTRUCTION), all of them have such musical hooks inherited from traditional Heavy Metal and Hard Rock. That’s why it’s almost impossible to resist to the genre. And the South African quartet TRUTH DECAYED shows such hook on their first release, a 2-song EP called “Modern Day Illusion”.

They use a more melodic approach inherited from North American School of the genre, some grooves and even some Progressive Rock elements in the technical moments. But the band needs to improve musically a bit more, because it’s full of energy and with hooks, but it’s extremely crude. It needs a maturing to get in the right point, but they’re on the right path. The production is their main problem: it is truly moldy and done without the needed care their music needs. The choice for instrumental tunes is really a problem, especially for the guitars (that are sounding with a poor sonority that tears out the hooking aggressiveness of the genre). Well, the problem is already set, and there’s no way to correct it anymore. Better luck on the future.

Musically, the band shows a good technical insight and has a great musical potential to be explored, as can be heard on “Modern Day Illusion” (some hooks can remind the listeners of the elements used by MEGADETH and TESTAMENT in the 80’s, especially due the solid work on drums and bass guitar), and on “Opposing Direction” (this song has a clear melodic appeal, with fine work on guitars, but the vocals need to improve its snarls in the future). Maybe they need a producer to help their musical efforts to have a better outlook in the future. To many fans, “Modern Day Illusion” can sound as a loss of time; but for others, it marks the beginning of a good work, because TRUTH DECAYED has everything in hands to be great.

Songwriting: 6
Musicianship: 8
Memorability: 7
Production: 4