MERCILESS
Merciless
(Black Lodge Records)
37:49min

Here it is at last!!!! I didn’t expect this album to be released after all but finally after eight years the wait is over!!!! I’ve been looking forward to this album like a maniac, my expectations were incredibly high and luckily the band doesn’t disappoint at all. For those who are not familiar with this band (are there any?), MERCILESS is an outstanding and very aggressive Thrash-act who reached absolute cult-status through their debut album “The Awakening” (which was by the way the very first release on the Deathlike Silence label of MAYHEM’s Euronymous). The second album “The Treasure Within” was somehow a bit disappointing but they luckily took revenge with the third album “Unbound”. After a contribution to the SLAYER tribute album “Slatanic Slaughter Vol. I”, things became very silent concerning MERCILESS. But luckily the silence is over… Musically “Merciless” sounds very close to their legendary debut: everything is extremely spontaneous, very raw, fast and extremely aggressive. The typical Thrash-riffs, the typical solos… they take you back fifteen years in time, back to the days of “Pleasure To Kill” and “Infernal Overkill”. Rogga’s vocals also didn’t change that much throughout the years – which is a good thing in my opinion – as he still sounds like the bastardson of Mille from KREATOR and Jeff of CARCASS (as far as this is scientifically possible of corpse … ; -) “Merciless” is one of the very few Metal albums released within the last couple of months which managed to get me really enthusiastic again, I don’t think any Metal band will be able to do the same for a long time! And now let’s just hope that the band will also be able to come over to Germany, Holland or Belgium for a few gigs, would be great to see them finally live after all those years…

Steven Willems

Steven Willems

Related reviews / interviews:
MERCILESS - Behind The Realms Of The Dark (Thomas Meyer)
MERCILESS - Live Obsession (Frank Stöver)
MERCILESS - Interview (Steven Willems)

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