A review of TENSION "Decay"

 TENSION

"Decay"

Dying Victims Productions 2022

Ladies and gentlemen, being in a subtle state after the consumption, this evening I spent with another item that was released at the beginning of this year by Dying Victims Productions. And I will tell you, straightforwardly and without bullshitting, that while listening to the first and only full album of German Tension (because this is the production we are talking about) I had a lot of fun, which is probably due to the work of this youth group as well as the alcohol circulating in my veins. Let's face it, the music presented by the band strikes much harder when a little something is already floating in our bloodstream. This quintet from Leipzig is like classic Heavy Metal, very much inspired by NWOBHM albums, with the early achievements of Iron Maiden at the forefront. However, it cannot be denied that the band uses and mixes these influences in their own way, and the singer is much closer to the punkish way of expression of Paul Di'Anno than to Bruce Dickinsson's parts, with addition of a small pinch of atmosphere from the first Danzig productions. When it comes to the guitars, I would also say that the Murray / Cairns duo can be heard more here than Murray / Smith, but the raging bass of Conrad N. and even, classically played drumms of Jonas Z. definitelt place this material in time. And this time is undoubtedly the beginning of the 1980s, i.e. the years when many of you, at best, were still shitting in diapers. Although it is a nice material that I listened to with genuine pleasure, I think that the gentlemen from Tension approached the topic too safely and conservatively, which makes this album a bit boring, flat at times and lacking the fire that filled the original productions from those years. There is no such verve and passion here, and only faithful playing and repeating certain patterns in the long run will not guarantee success in my opinion. So to put it bluntly, "Decay" is just a solid, handcrafted, heavy metal album, which will probably do well to classic maniacs brought up on traditional patterns, but there is no chance to win new followers.

Hatzamoth