Album review: Defying Decay – Synthetic Sympathy

Defying Decay do exactly what they say on the tin. Some 30 years since Linkin Park toyed with the band name Hybrid Theory to represent their meld of metal, hip-hop and electronic, the Thai collective feel like they’ve boldly taken up the baton, fighting off rust with non-stop new ideas and a healthy layer of polish. Synthetic Sympathy might be their third album after 2015’s All We Know Is Falling and 2019’s Metamorphosis, but the almost decade-long gestation and everything that’s happened in the interim – COVID, world tours, publicly challenging Thailand’s controversial criminal code – makes it feel truly revelatory.

Watching Defying Decay kick off Bangkok’s Rock Alarm festival last month, with a 32-piece orchestra in tow, it felt like they’d struggle to replicate that sense of sheer scale on record. Not so. Instrumental intro The Requiem: A Bipolar Nightmare is a bold, playful, dramatic, electro-infused neoclassical composition that captures the imagination before things have even gotten going. Built To Fall sees the band emerge on a wave of glorious melodrama. The Law 112: Secrets And Renegades brings the crunch with a rebel anthem loaded with massive hooks. Then RX Regicide sees Sleeping With Sirens’ Kellin Quinn and superstar Thai guitarist Noth Getsunova jump aboard for an irresistibly freewheeling pop-rock nugget.

There is a lot going on over Synthetic Symapthy’s 14 tracks. That’s true to the point where it feels often like a compilation of unconnected singles than any more deliberately interlinked body of work. To their enormous credit, though, every song feels like it could be a hit single.

Echoes of K and J-pop bump against rock hard wedges of nu-metal. Dark shades of modern alt. metal mix with the nostalgic primary colours of mid-2000s pop-punk. Pale, for instance, is an epic composition destined to light up arenas. 21 Stitches has the firepower to open wounds in the mosh pit and the catchiness to stick even in concussed minds. After which Clouds (featuring Thai singer Violette Wautier) unveils a whole new level of timeless pop songwriting and gleaming high production. Even then, we’re barely halfway through!

Admittedly, the kitchen-sink approach of throwing absolutely everything at this long-awaited return means that getting to the finish line comes with equal parts exhaustion and exhilaration. But so high are the emotions, so sharp the sounds flowing through a heartbroken Inside These Lies and unhinged System Of Sinners that you’re still hanging on every word. Last track Hide & Seek has big end-credits energy, an alternately dreamy and surging outro inviting listeners to stop and take a deep breath. It won’t take long for most of them to flick back to the start and dive back into this shimmering sea of sound.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Linkin Park, While She Sleeps, Thornhill

Synthetic Sympathy is out now.