As music becomes a more fluid thing, defined less by stylistic choice and more by feel, there’s no doubt that we are reaching the end of genre. For the purest this can be annoying, but for those who like their music built on shifting sands bands such as Defying Decay are manna from heaven. With a sound that doesn’t knock down boundaries, more demolishes them with wrecking ball force, this band have been constantly refining their sound since their formation in 2010. With latest album Synthetic Sympathy, it feels as if Defying Decay have finally come of age, delivering a self assured record that finds them playing to their strengths whilst weeding out the weak. Featuring fourteen tracks of molten-melting music finds Defying Decay very much alive and kicking.
If you are yet to make the acquaintance of Defying Decay then opening track ‘The Requiem: A Bipolar Nightmare’ will give you a pretty good indication of what’s in store. It’s a microcosm of the whole album and finds the band shapeshifting like some strange extra-terrestrial lifeform. As with the band’s sound, it has an inherent flow: like a stream rushing towards the sea, it’s an 
unstoppable force, twisting and turning, ebbing and flowing, giving no idea of where it will travel next. However, when approaching a Defying Decay album you soon learn to expect the unexpected, and it’s never knowing in what guise the band will appear next that makes this such an engaging listen. Even with this in mind, the sedate start that heralds the arrival of ‘Built To Fall’ still took me by surprise. Yet, true to form that perpetual motion is very much in evidence, and like a snowballing rolling downhill, the song takes on form as it progresses, turning into into an avalanche as it reaches its conclusion, and one that threatens to bury the listener. But forwards is only one direction of travel for Defying Decay; theirs is a sound with 360-degree rotation, and ‘21 Stitches’ would be a perfect example and finds the band crashing through the gears, sometimes throwing things in reverse and then swaying from side to side. Of course, being genre fluid is no easy science: get that fusion wrong and a band could be left with a jarring, clanky sound, get that admixture right, however, and a group will have a sound that sparkles and fizzes. Thankfully, Defying Decay very much fall in the latter category and that gives them a musical freedom of which most bands would be envious. It means that when some rap vocals nestle next to gnarly metal riffs on ‘Inside These Lies’ and then served up with a pop sensibility, it sounds like the most natural thing on Earth.
As to where Defying Decay will veer next musically, all bets are off, but for now revel in the delights of Synthetic Sympathy.
Track List:
1. The Requiem: A Bipolar Nightmare
2. Built To Fall
3. The Law 112: Secrets & Renegades
4. RX Regicide (feat. Kellin Quinn & Noth Getsunova)
5. Pale
6. 21 Stitches
7. Clouds (feat. Violette Wautier)
8. Meaningless
9. Prelude: A Peaceful Sleep
10. Debris
11. Last Reply
12. Inside These Lies
13. System Of Sinners
14. Hide & Seek
