A Tale of Decadence

Well well well, what have we here? I've been looking for a while to find anything that remotely resembles Infinite Tales, and now we've finally got a (sort of) match! Meet Ecliptyka, a Brazilian power/melodeath band who have pretty much everything that Infinite Tales had in terms of instrumentation. Now, I could tell right from the off that this wasn't going to be quite the same quality (not that anything else is either), but beggars can't be choosers...

Before I start, a little word of warning: I'm going to try not to compare the two bands directly throughout the whole review, but don't be surprised to see me mention those Ukrainians at various points. Also, for anyone that's stumbled across this band randomly, I will immediately point you in the direction of the aforementioned Infinite Tales if Ecliptyka catches your attention. You won't be disappointed.

First things first, the vocals. There are both male growls and female cleans here (plus the occasional male clean, but they rarely feature at all besides the guest singers), although it is by no means an even split and the cleans get far more time in the spotlight. If the cleans were the most exceptional things that I'd ever heard then I probably wouldn't mind, but they're nothing special really. They're okay, and I've definitely heard worse, but there's something slightly irritating about them, particularly during the higher sequences. I think the overdose of cleans doesn't help, because it makes the girl's voice get stale much faster than it otherwise would. Considering that the female soprano singer was the best bit about Infinite Tales, it's a little disappointing for this band to be almost lacklustre in that area. It also says a lot that all the songs I like best have guest vocalists on them.

The guitars though are pretty cool. There are a lot of neat riffing patterns and it's fairly easy to get into what they're doing. Sometimes power metal seems a bit too predictable and cliché, mostly with the way the guitars keep repeating themselves and constantly thrust themselves into epic duels that are severely overdone. Not so here, and I find them pretty entertaining for the whole fifty-odd minutes that A Tale of Decadence lasts. Occasionally they'll degrade until they're simply chugging along while the singer takes the lead role, but when they're allowed to show what they've got they generally impress.

As far as keyboards go... there aren't any. Which is quite surprising, because cheesy keyboards are also pretty cliché when it comes to power metal. Once again though, I have to say that I'm glad. One of the reasons that I don't seek out power metal is that the stereotypical band sounds like they're playing an overly epic version of NWOBHM. If all power metal was more along the lines of Ecliptyka then maybe I'd enjoy the genre more.

Basically, A Tale of Decadence is decently enjoyable and manages to stay clear of most things that put me off of power metal, although it is still clearly more rooted in power metal than melodeath. It's subtly different from Infinite Tales, but ultimately for me not quite as enjoyable (although the genre probably has a lot to do with that). However, I did enjoy most of the instrumentation and I might listen to their follow-up effort at some point in the near future.