Decadence
Book Of The Redeemed
Self-released
There comes a time in the shelf life of a heavy rock band when the sum total of its experience and commitment adds up to a career defining moment, whether it’s that hit song that connects with a mass audience, or just an artistic statement that is so clearly above and beyond anything else they’ve done to that point. For Columbia’s Decadence, this new album Book of the Redeemed is the latter–an astounding, bracing listen that reveals more depth and meaning with every page that’s turned.
The band has been a stalwart presence on the local and regional heavy music scene for a while, and this release was a long time coming–now we know why. Not only is the production and songwriting top notch, singer Scott McGrady’s lyrics are deeply personal. This had to be a difficult set of songs to write and record, not to mention let loose into the world for others to judge if they are worthy or not (They are.).
Decadence straddles that line between commercial appeal and unapologetic, raw power better than most, and the production on the new songs showcases the intensity of the band’s sound, with stop-start arrangements that drop out completely, then blast back moments later with even more unrestrained fury. Drummer Ben Burris and bassist Ryan Wicker have played together long enough now they move and groove like a single unit, powering the monster riffs that cut through each tune. McGrady has a decent singing voice when the song calls for it, but most of these tracks require his most angst-laden, guttural near-screams.
The content of the lyrics is as intense as the music, and McGrady has said online that there is an intentional running theme present, related to a friend who dealt with abandonment, pain, and anger, and moving on from that. “Abandonment” relates a story of being placed in foster care, inserting a line out of a childhood prayer to really drive home the innocence lost in the process:
Strangers tuck me in my bed
Shuffled through this castoff’s deck so
Now I lay me down to rest
Left alone through your abandonment
The most furious track is “Take Your Shot,” which addresses that person with a problem that won’t allow anyone to help, or even admit they need help in the first place. It’s like the band pours that frustration directly into the stacked guitar riffs of Dustin Welch, as McGrady sings:
Tell me how to understand
Why you need to live this way
While I watch you take another shot at what this could have been
The somewhat title cut “Redemption” is the slowest, most melodic one of the bunch. McGrady channels Roger Daltrey of the Who, circa “Behind Blue Eyes,” as he sings the chorus in triumph:
And now I see
A new dawn rising
I feel redemption
And I’ll leave
It all behind me
Won’t let it blind me
This is the sound of someone, or maybe some band, that’s gone through hell, come out the other side intact, now appreciating but not dwelling on the experience. Sounds a lot like they’ve been redeemed, doesn’t it?
Decadence releases Book of the Redeemed officially this Saturday, with a release show at New Brookland Tavern that will also feature The Baldwin Massacre, Ozmyridis, and Sorrow Of Silence.
