For Madmen Only

“THREE bass players and six release dates later I can at last send you a copy" wrote Abbo in his letter. Listening to the first side of this debut album, I can perhaps count myself lucky that I met the singer one night in Heaven.

The backdrop is a night sky full of thunder and lightning. Tossed out are grand themes of life and death in a Pagan nightmare of epic proportions. The forces of heaven and hell, light and dark unleashed and doing grim battle in the sweeping drive of the music.

There are historic and literary references. From Hermes to Luddites, from Dante to Dorian Gray. The song 'Dual' contains the classic line: ‘Death so fatal...’.

The comparatively subdued opening to 'Stagestruck' sports a bass tone so thick and ghoulish it is as if a grisly hand is reaching down your throat to make the green bile from the pit of the stomach gush out in a gruesome flood. Half heard, mad whispering voices precede the track, no doubt describing in tortuous detail some horrifying Satanic act.

This half of the disc is best heard at screaming volume sitting in the centre of a pentangle before a bloody altar, the room heavy with the smell of burning incense. All in all a devilishly enjoyable wheeze but then comes side two...

Which begins with a pairing of recent singles, 'Unexpected Guest' with its gnashing atmospherics and the more urgent slashes of 'Sexual'.

The mellow smooth groove and feather-weight piano touches of 'Dorian' is the first break out into a lighter hue. The poky littering notes leading into 'May Day Malady' are another new departure, building into a main part that flows and soars like the May Day dance the lyrics describe.

By the time the closing song is reached the band have fully matured and attained the capability for the ambitious adventure into the complex territory of the title track. The melodramatic horrors beaten out on side one give way and allow room for an altogether truly gripping modern statement.

UK Decay have a lot more to offer than is generally thought. But they're moving fast, so investigate now.