Decanon – D in Canon (Album Review)

A lot of rock acts and acts that fall under the vast and expansive subgenre of rock state the obvious that the glory and peak of their genre is the past, when songs within this umbrella boasted a wonderful mixture of experimentation, novelty, complexity and emotionality. Meet today’s act, named Decanon, who aims to successfully present us with a revival of such sounds with their own edge to it.

Decanon is a German band named after an undiscovered planet known for its unexplainable influence on human kind. Well, the band clarifies that it does not exist in the traditional sense, but they mean a lot to Stefan, the main member of the group, who is an experimental multi-genre artist and producer from Germany, born in January 1980. He encountered decades of ups and downs and delays, finally continuing his music production endeavours in September of 2024. He quips, ‘Our technology and the way we listen to and appreciate music has shifted for many people over the years’.

His goal is to preserve a sound once loved and cherished through new records that mirror the dynamics of records from prior records, such as specific records made approximately in 1987. The music by Decanon contains AI-generated samples, carefully arranged and re-recorded to optimize the interdynamics and to give it his desired song structure. The records are then balanced and mastered to humanise and distinguish them from other records. The lyrics are hand-written and the music released by the band are personally approved and enjoyed by Stefan.

Decanon is the 4th project embarked on by Stefan and he also describes being pleased to have started other music projects prior, as it helped him to shape and evolve over time. An example of the fruits of his labour being sown is the Gold award in Composition he earned for a classical music composition at the Haydn Online Music International Competition.

He also describes good music as ‘the sum of all its parts’, not necessarily needing to be exclusively hand-made. Chucking lots of personality and work into his recordings, he defends his methods by asking us to re-examine the state of the music industry’s output in popular music when it comes to hot mastering from the last 30+ years.

This is an album that’s definitely exciting, with chops of old glam rock and classic rock reimagined with modern mastering standards as well as techniques. It contains influences of hair metal, melodic metal, power metal, heavy metal, adult-oriented rock and experimental music.

There are definite strokes of genius within this album, especially within the instrumental tracks. They have a lot of different melodic lines as well as motivic variation, keeping you on the edge of your seat as a listener. Do not fret, though, as they’re not all dispersed. They do have a central node of melody to satisfy your brain’s need for recurrence without falling into the trap of redundancy.

The instruments used are extremely ferocious and definitely have a presence. In terms of instrumentation, the album is well-mastered enough to let different instrumental chops shine within one track, but in my headphones, the mastering can come off a little too crunchy. However, I strongly infer that this album was meant to be listened to out loud instead of with headphones, and I’m sure the crunchiness will disappear, emanating into the atmosphere.

The album generally has a mix of instrumental tracks and tracks that contain lyrics. I infer that the singer is artificial intelligence, as mentioned by the artist himself. I have to say that, as a benchmark, AI is getting better at generating vocals, but there are still a few quirks here and there that still make it sound artificial and not necessarily fit the feel of the track, even if every other element of the track manages to capture me as a listener.

You can definitely hear the artist’s classical music influence within the scope of this body of work, just merely by the way the melodic tracks are phrased and the notes are chosen. It is said that metal is the more electrifying cousin of classical music, and I can definitely hear this throughout the album, within tracks like Raw Desire and Canon’s Future Trip.

There is simply no dull moment within this album. Interesting to listen to as well, even if you don’t typically listen to this genre.

SCORE/ Excellent – ‘D in Canon’ is a wonderful album that mixes several rock influences, some vintage and some modern, to create a fabulously enticing and exciting album. There is no dull moment within this body of work, with melodies and solos gracing these songs to definitely keep your attention. It also contains a wonderful ear for instrument selection, within the context of the umbrella of genres it contains.

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