Decoy - Call of the Wild
Ger Musica Records - 2007
By Adam McAuley
What we have here is relatively standard power metal, that seems to have enough standalone power to keep your interest. It's not quite as cheesy as some of the bands that occupy the genre although that trait certainly permeates the album to a great extent. The heroic vibe present on many of these types of albums is replaced with a slightly more sublime one that functions fairly well for the band and that can be compared to mid to late era
Sentenced for example. So a combination of hyper and slightly more gelled moods is present here and works well for the band.
Vocals occupy the similar rather slang style that many of these power metal outfits have and aren't completely compelling, but at the same time aren't really annoying either. The sonicscape created is thus one that's somewhat accessible, but at the same time doesn't really catch your attention as it could. The music never descends to self parody really, but sounds more at times like a hard rock album than one would expect from the power metal genre. Thankfully, it doesn't quite fall into the rut of being overly artificial as well, but maintains a reasonably integral core. However, nothing particularly stands out as quite compelling amongst their song structures as well and they come across as a decent act, but nothing spectacular. This is the type of album that's strong in most areas, but really doesn't have enough of an ingenuitive slant to keep you interested.
It's thus an album that will appeal to some fans of power metal and melodic metal in general, but doesn't have enough of a twist to compel many other listeners. It drifts by without anything particularly interesting to compel you and almost sounds sort of infantile at times, making for a reasonably good listen listen at best.
Official Decoy Band Website
Official Ger Musica Website
