1980. Punk had kicked the door wide open and crowds of sans-culotte musicians were storming Bastille slaying the rock n roll aristocracy. Somehow, a bunch of wacky kids in Greece got the message and intended to do their part.
Not an easy task in post-junta Greece were rock music was frowned upon by the authorities, record companies, state-controlled radio, live venues and the masses. Even worse, the local old-school rockers totally detested the new sights and sounds.
What? No 20-minute guitar solo? Where's the long hair? You gotta be kidding.. Metro Decay, were one of those few musical oddities that sprang in the neighbourhoods of Athens during that era. In 1981 18 year-olds Yannis Maniatis and Costas Mastoris recruited 15 year old Antonis Maniatis who was the only one that had ever laid hand on a musical instrument till then and started rehearsing.
First live show ever was in "Kyttaro" club in the spring of 1982, first big concert was as an opening act for Nick Cave's "Birhtday Party" in September same year. The band quickly drew attention despite the hostile environment and earned a reputation as a constantly evolving rather outlandish live act.
Metro Decay signed with "Creep Records", one of the first indie labels in the country and a haven for bands flirting with the darker side of "new wave", and released a 7 inch ("Skies"/Keemilia") in 1983 and critically acclaimed LP "Ypervasi" in 1984.
Both vinyls are hard to find. The band slowly disintegrated, band members left (Mastoris) others came with guitarist Stelios Mastrokalos being the one sticking to the very end. The band stopped appearing on stage.
Rehearsals became more and more rare and finally during one of them in 1994 the Maniatis bros, Mastrokalos and Mastoris (who had meanwhile briefly rejoined) realised that the band had lost its originality and sprite a long time ago and called it a day.
However disbandment was only announced in 2008 following a failed attempt to reunite for a concert. Pronouncing the corpse dead with a twenty years delay did not surprise the people who knew the band and the chaos surrounding, containing and consuming it's members lives.
Up to today it seems that people have a problem pinpointing Metro Decay's influences and exact musical genre. This not only amuses all former band members, it is also something they are quite proud of since the main goal of the band was, well, doing things a little bit differently
