The Days Of Decay, the debut album from Finnish pop-metal newcomers Escalane is a nice little listen, with the band showing a lot of potential with this release.
Admittedly the music isn’t something that will grip you on your first listen. Everything is very well-constructed, and the songs are all pretty catchy, but there isn’t a vast amount of variety between the tracks as they all tend to follow the same format so it can be a little difficult to fully immerse yourself in the release – but nevertheless, it is still an enjoyable listen.
Everything with the band gels really well; the heaviness to the instrumentation juxtaposes well against the vocals and indeed, the vocal performances for each song are particularly good. Frontwoman Hanna gives a smooth and emotive delivery that diverges from a more ‘usual’ peppy pop-style, and it really works, giving the music more of a kick. Additionally, there’s plenty of sing-along moments throughout, so I can only imagine how great this band would be in a live environment! Songs such as Careless, which also features a great synth line, and The Spiral, which has a great deal of energy behind the delivery, are two such tracks and are definitely worth a closer inspection.
As a whole, The Days Of Decay is a good listen and Escalane have laid the foundations for a good, solid career. However, a little more variety from song to song certainly wouldn’t go amiss.
6/10
