The Decayed Corrupt Politicians Will Never Set You Free LP

This chainsaw gut-rip from Chicago’s the DECAYED is their first LP after an EP a couple of years ago. A snotty warhorse of galloping metal punk; vocals are minimal and snarled. This teeters somewhere on a railroad track between thrash metal and street punk. Riffs are far-off horizon landscapes at times and fierce, punctuated hardcore moments later. The DECAYED have a groove that grabs you immediately. Vocal pace is stompy in a ’90s hardcore way, the metallic stylization is more modern. Punk passages are throughout each song, while being at the core a metal album. I like the standout, non-distorted bass call-and-response with the distorted guitar. This is sort of a mix between NAUSEA (vocal pace), MUNICIPAL WASTE (riffs), early RANCID (bass), FILTH (bitterness), the Pogo Attack compilation bands, and ’90s Epitaph bands. The DECAYED’s debut LP has a lot of different attitudes for sure, while maintaining something recognizably their own.

• Reviewer Jason Ryan
• Label self-released
• Issue MRR #462 • November 2021