In this paper, a class of damped viscoelastic wave equations
$$begin{aligned} u_{tt}-k(0)Delta u-int _0^infty k'(s)Delta u(t-s)ds+|u_t|^{m-1}u_t=|u|^{p-1}u end{aligned}$$is considered in a bounded domain (Omega subset {mathbb {R}}^3). Uniform energy decay was discussed which depends on the relaxation function (-k'(s)) in the previous work (Guo et al., Z Angew Math Phys 69:65, 2018) for (1le mle 5). Depending on a key integral inequality obtained by Martinez (ESAIM Control Optim Calc Var 4:419–444, 1999), we establish the decay estimate of the total energy for (m>5). Our results improve and complement the previous one. As an example, a logarithmic energy decay is also presented.