Decameron - My Shadow...

DECAMERON - My Shadow... (NO FASHION - CD 1996)

Mid to late 90's was quite a weird time for Swedish metal scene. It started to spawn dozens of new bands, which had a new thing in common – melody. At the Gates, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity were on one side of the coin. And Dissection, Unanimated, Centinex and Necrophobic on the other. Jon Nodtveidt’s band had an enormous influence on creating a whole new wave of satanic black / death metal. The followers appeared, many of them around the infamous No Fashion Records. I remember I was moaning a little on some bands from this label, because they all sounded the same! And only few had really something great to offer. So, I disliked such Ablaze My Sorrow, Gates of Ishtar and Decameron, but I did enjoy Sacramentum, Dawn, Vinterland and Unanimated. 

Time goes forward and years later “My Shadow…” gets another chance... And well, I am still far from calling it the best thing I ever heard in my life, but it's not so bad either. It has some good moments for sure. Yes, Decameron music may not have been so ferocious and satanic like Unanimated's or Sacramentum's stuff. But it had its charm and character. Blending Dissection-esque melodic death / black metal with a surprisingly often present Iron Maiden-ism, we get an album different to many others. Decameron was close in finding a perfect balance between these styles and their own original sound. Sure, some songs, like the awesome “Our Time Has Come” and “Satanized” (which was written in cooperation with Jon from Dissection) stand above the others as more aggressive and straight forward with almost thrashing chorus and riffage – which I like a lot. While “Le Roi Triste” is more melodic based, with some classic heavy metal instrumental passages and guitar soloing. But this song had found a room for some arse kicking fast playing. 

Another standout song, “The Scar of Damnation”, is just great. It’s opening minute long riffage is excellent, having both thrashing riffs as well as some truly catchy melodic ones, then followed by quite melancholic parts. Finally, its ending brings wonderful melodies and riffs and… some clean vocals, which give something extra, really. It must be remembered that Decameron composed quite lengthy tracks; most of them were above the average 5-6 minutes, so the band had plenty of time to show a good number of ideas they wanted. And that’s why the entire album, almost every song actually, sounded so varied and interesting. “Sexual Immortality” or “Skabma” are another cool pieces. 

I think the worst aspects of this album happen towards its end. This is where everything becomes too mellow and Decameron started to incline even more heavy metal influences, which didn’t work that well. And at some point they just started to sound boring, I had enough. Even bigger problem are those damn annoying clean vocals, which sound just awful in such “Prophecy of Life to Come” and the last song, “Mistress of Sacrifice”, which... well, I have no idea what did Decameron want to present with this last song, but it sounds just shite and so, so off. This is why "My Shadow" is very uneven. There are some great riffs or songs, but also few, which I would immediately delete and forget about. But cut three songs off it and it would be a brilliant album. 

Standout tracks: “Carpe Nocem”, “Satanized”, “Our Time Has Come” 

Verdict: 70/100