UMUR "Decline" is the debut full-length studio album by Spanish progressive metal act Melanism. The album was released in September 2016 as a "name your price" option on the band´s Bandcamp profile.

The band play a style which in some ways is similar to the sound of artists like Gojira, Hacride, and Scarve. It´s atmospheric, groove laden metal featuring angular riffs and rhythms. The lead vocalist has a semi-raw delivery which sounds like a combination of Joe Duplantier (Gojira) and Jaz Coleman (Killing Joke), but he also often sings more melodic atmospheric parts and harmonies. The music is generally well performed, and it´s obvious these guys are pretty skilled musicians.

The material on the 9 track, 53:33 minutes long album is geneally of a good quality, but the album does become a bit one-dimensional about half-way through. It´s not that the band don´t have any great ideas, because they certainly have quite a few of those, but in the end the songs still sound a bit too much the same. It´s nothing too serious, but it´s an observation that needs to be mentioned. The band have a tendency to prolong the climaxes of their tracks to an extent which is a bit too much (too much good, can also be too much), and a bit more dynamic in the tracks could have done the trick.

When that is said "Decline" is still a quality release, featuring a well sounding production (the drums could have prospered from a more organic tone though), strong musicianship, and relatively interesting songwriting, and a 3.5 star (70%) rating isn´t all wrong.