65%
Decrepid—Live at the Purple Turtle (2009)
Details
Recorded live at the Purple Turtle, London on 24 June 2009. Bonus studio track recorded at Ealing Film Studios, London on 23 May 2009. Engineered by Geriant Newall. Mastering by Owen Crawford at Soundfire Studios, Wales. All songs written by Decrepid.
Band
- Cris Bassan—Vocals
- Danny Price—Guitar
- Steve Brennan—Guitar
- Marni—Bass
- Michael Dummett—Drums
Tracks
- Born to die
- Sins of Sodom
- Avoiding humanity
- Devoted to death
- Kill or be killed
- Bloodlust
- Sins of Sodom (bonus studio track)
Review
Another review written late… sorry! I tell you, this going back to work lark is seriously interfering with my metal listening!
As I think I’ve said elsewhere on this blog, I’m generally not overly fond of live albums. Try as they might, they don’t always capture the full live experience: hours of waiting around, the aching feet, watching roadies moving stuff on stage, the smell of stale beer, the sticky floors, the rank lavatories! Oh yeah, and the music…
The production on this album, however, is pretty decent. I mean, it still sounds pretty rough, but at least the instruments are well defined in the mix. The bass guitar is meaty, the drums have a depth to them, the guitars aren’t too dominant or have too much high end, and there’s a clarity in the incomprehensibility of the vocals.
Not only are the lyrics unrecognisable, but Bassan insists on introducing the name of each song in the death growl style that he sings the songs. “The next song is called GROWLGROWLGROWL!”
The album kicks off with four beats on the hi-hat to count in a beefy, almost doom riff at the start of “Born to die”. Before long speeds up and are joined by guttural vocals. I love the bass tone on this song. It’s refreshing to actually hear the bass guitar on a death metal album, as they so often follow so closely the main guitar riff.
As the song grinds to a halt, Bassan utters a self-congratulatory, “Fuckin’ yeah!” before announcing to the crowd, “Alright, we are Decrepid. We are from London. … [Pause] … That’s it really!”
Not the most dynamic of chats with the crowd from a front man, but it does the job.
And that about sums up the rest of the album for me, really. It does the job adequately. There isn’t anything on this album that I disliked particularly. But neither was there anything in particular that stood out for me. It’s all pretty much death-metal-by-numbers, but it’s fun. (Is death metal supposed to be fun? I must look that up sometime.)
I tell you what else is fun: the album title. It’s about as far from death metal as you could hope to get. Think about it, repeat it over and over again: death metal… purple turtle. It’s like mentioning black metal and My Little Pony in the same sentence.
Conclusion
If I was to see Decrepid in concert, as I was standing on the sticky floor, my feet aching, my ears hurting from the volume, I get a sense that I would rather enjoy their set.
The only problem is that I imagine it might be forgotten rather quickly. Like disposable death metal: use once then discard.
Review score: 65%