Review: Silver Talon – Decadence and Decay

Style: progressive heavy/power metal (clean vocals)
Review by: Sam
Country: US-OR
Release date: 28 May, 2021

Good modern-sounding heavy metal is a very rare sight. There are plenty of old-school revival bands with likewise old-school production aesthetics, but when it comes to bands trying to bring the genre into the modern era, the landscape is quite barren, let alone when it comes to progressive heavy metal. We’ve come across plenty of bands tagged as progressive heavy on Metal-Archives for this blog, but nearly all of them were plagued by mediocre guitar work and/or annoyingly inauthentic tuff guy vocals. So to my pleasant surprise came Silver Talon, a band that sounds modern and competent.

This band was sold to me as having heavy Nevermore influences, and while indeed those are present (will get to them in a minute), Decadence and Decay has a lot more going for it than just that. There are USPM influences, 90s power metal and neoclassical leanings, 00s-style dark production, and a hefty dose of progressive parts to spice it up. For a genre that is usually so stagnant, this album is a huge breath of fresh air. Safe to say I did not expect the Stratovarius-esque neoclassical runs opening “Kill All Kings”, nor the Spanish-sounding acoustic parts in “Next to the Sun”.

But throwing left-field influences dost not the good songwriting maketh, so how is the meat of the album? Or in other words, where riff? Safe to say: has riff, gud riff. From the first song, you know how talented this band is. It’s chock full of mean, chunky ruffs, and comes with great variety too. There’s even blast beats and black metal riffing! We’re immediately treated to the full range of singer Wyatt Howell too. He sounds full and powerful, and belts out the high notes as well as any upper echelon 80s singer. There’s not a hint of the generic tuff guy act you usually hear or any other semblance of forcing it. His dark, slightly dramatic tone fits really well with the music, which is also pretty dark thanks to the downtuning of the guitars. It’s not quite at Nevermore levels, but the similarities are there for sure.

Another great aspect of this band is the triple-guitar attack they employ. It isn’t like Iron Maiden where you can hear clear solo trade-offs, but everything leads very naturally into each other. I barely even noticed they had three guitarists because of how well it flows. I suppose it explains the variety in guitar approaches I mentioned earlier. There’s also a very strong performance on the kit.

The production is mostly very strong, but a few things get buried in the mix. Sometimes the solos feel a bit more behind than they really should, and the neoclassical runs that occasionally pop up are hard to hear. I wish they would have explored that neoclassical/power metal aspect more in general. It doesn’t become more than a few nods unfortunately. Other than that, everything else sounds phenomenal. It’s a full and chunky mix without suffering from any significant loudness war abuse. Bass is also plenty prominent.

In terms of the songs, I think it gets progressively better with each one as they start leaning more into the progressive and power metal aspects of their sound. Their more gentle melodic side is very, very strong, and the straightforward power parts are very immediate and hooky. I find the band at their strongest when they experiment, and I would have liked to see a bit more of that in the first half. An element of critique would also be that parts of their sound feel unrefined. Sometimes I get the feeling that they try to experiment, but then halfway through revert back into their comfortzone. For example “Kill All Kings” starts very neoclassical, but before long it sonically falls in line with the rest again. I would have liked a little bit more boldness with this. Another problem is that the choruses tend to sound very similar after a while with a big dark and dramatic hook. I could have used some more variety there.

Overall though, Decadence and Decay is an exceptionally strong record, and a huge breath of fresh air when it comes to modern heavy metal. Their sound can be a bit unrefined at times as they seem afraid to dive too deep into the experimentation, and a few things get lost in the mix, but on the other hand, it’s precisely that will to experiment which makes this so great. This is easily the best thing I’ve heard for the blog in this style since Starborn in 2019, so I’m incredibly happy with this record. I’ll keep listening to this for quite a while I’m sure. Good job lads!

Recommended tracks: Next to the Sun, Kill All Kings, Touch the Void
Recommended for fans of: Nevermore, Sanctuary, (US) power metal in general
Final verdict: 8/10

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Label: M-Theory Audio – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Silver Talon is:
– Wyatt Howell (vocals)
– Devon Miller (guitars)
– Sebastian Silva (guitars)
– Bryce Adams Vanhoosen (guitars)
– Walter Hartzell (bass)
– Michael Thompson (drums)