Signs of Decay

The past year has seen massive growth in the Indianapolis metal scene. This has been manifested in the form of raised awareness, increased unity and several excellent new bands, like Signs Of Decay. We chatted with SoD members Mike Martin, Rob Hough and Ray Willis about the band and their plans for the future.

NUVO: Give us a brief history of the band.

Hough: I was looking for a band to play with when I was living in Dayton and I knew I was moving back to Indianapolis, so I hooked up with some guys who jammed out on the Southside. They had everything I was looking for. When the other guitar player stopped showing up, we found Martin. Then we lost our drummer, replaced the drummer, lost him, went with the drum machine for almost a year, we did a Patio show with a fill-in drummer, and after the Patio show we fired the drummer and the singer because we couldn’t stand either of one them. A few months go by, and I get an e-mail from Willis. We brought Willis out for a few times and I guess he liked what he heard and we liked what we heard, so we went from there.

Willis: Our drummer just recently joined about two months ago.

Martin: It took us a long time to find a good drummer. There’s a lot of drummers out there, and they’re all good in their own way, but we needed somebody that was able to push what we’re going to do. A real good strong double kick, good time signature, all that off time stuff, and be able to handle it.

NUVO: So what are the goals for the band? Short-term goals and then long-term goals.

Willis: It would be nice for us to win the battle, but I just think it would be nice for a metal band period to win the battle. As far as the band goes, more songs, and just tightening everything up.

Hough: Yeah, and an album. Another short-term goal for me is to turn this thing into an actual force to be reckoned with.

NUVO: And long-term?

Willis: Well, I think Demiricous set the bar for that.

Hough: If there’s any band in town that deserved to be signed, it was Demiricous.

NUVO: Yeah, I have to agree. So what would you say are the main influences on the band?

Hough: Slayer, Lamb Of God, Shadows Fall, a lot of old school trash/death/speed metal. It’s kind of like old school metal with new school influences.

NUVO: What would you say in response to negative metal press like the legal cases against Satyricon and Trip Eisen and, of course, Dimebag Darrell’s death?

Willis: I think it’s safe to say that these are isolated incidents. What sets these cases apart from everything else is that they’re not guys getting up in the morning and working 9 to 5. They’re entertainers.

Hough: What’s going to cause the most effect is the Dime thing. Simply because of the dynamics of what’s going to happen security wise.

You can catch Signs of Decay on their site: www.signsofdecay.com.

- Nuvo