Decahedron, 2005

I’m one of those people that believes that Decahedron is (was?) basically the continuation of Frodus in everything but name. It’s still Shelby Cinca and Jason Hamacher with (insert bassist here) kicking out frenetic post-punk-hardcore-politicized-art-rock like men possessed. 2005 was basically released to fill the gaps between Decahedron’s first and second full-lengths, but as things appear now, the disc may end up being the final release from the band, as they went on “indefinite hitaus” last year.

The new material on the disc will appease fans of the band to some degree — the first three tracks (“Movement A”, “Terrhetoric”, and personal favorite “We Are The Virus”) deliver the abrasive D.C. Dischord-type rock in spades. Then Decahedron decide to cover Cop Shoot Cop (“Cause & Effect”) and Bauhaus (“Scopes”), and things get off track just a little. “Cause & Effect” isn’t really that interesting, and “Scopes” is pretty cool on the first listen or two, but the novelty wears off rather quickly. I would think that fans of Decahedron would much rather have a couple of other “lost tracks” on there instead, especially with the band being in limbo at the moment.

The caveat to the slight let-down of the audio EP is the inclusion of video of Decahedron’s incendiary MacRock 2004 performance on the disc, which is pretty damn cool to watch. Hamacher continually seems to be beating the drums into submission, then-bassist Johnathan Ford undulates and screams, and Shelby Cinca looks about ready to spontaneously combust at any given moment, even throwing himself nearly offstage at the end of the performance. Intermittently throughout the set, Cinca makes incisive statements about the subject matter of his songs, and the state of the world in general…at times coming close to the indie rock version of a “fire and brimstone” sermon. It’s entirely too bad that the audience stands there slack-jawed the whole time, either not getting it or not wanting to. If only more people would listen to the “Delete False Culture” gospel of Decahedron, the world might be a better place. More importantly, the band might still be active.