Label: Osmose Productions
Release date: October 25th, 2024
Ok, let’s continue our little metal Tour de France, even while we were in Belgium. And once again I’ll write a few lines about one more, found in 1987 in the second most populous city of Alsace – Milhouse, legend of French, as for me not only, extreme metal scene. The same as in case of Loudblast it’s not as well-known outside their motherland as it should be. Well, I’d even risk to say this is almost unknown for, let’s call it, average metalhead even in Europe. Reasons are of course mysterious for me, because their music always presented huge, or at least good enough, quality. The truth is they cooperated with smaller labels, but in my opinion it shouldn’t have any meaning here. The only exception was Century Media, but cooperation with them gave the band nothing in the context I mentioned before. Anyways, their eight recorded in studio full-length is released by very well-known for metalheads worldwide Osmose Productions, so let’s hope the situation will change and Mercyless will flow into wider waters!
By the way, the premiere of “Those Who Reign Bellow” took place the same day, October 25th, as in case of “Altering Fates and Destinies”. Well, it probably was a coincidence, because I deeply doubt labels consult with each other their release plans and stuff. But I like such coincidences very much, to be honest! You know, the same day I got the opportunity to listen to two great albums of ensembles I and my music taste grew up with, two metal legends. That’s why, the same as in the case of Stepane’s horde, it’s not too easy for me to be fully objective while reviewing “Those…”. I’m sure you know what I mean with these words, and I haven’t explained to you what I mean. Anyways, Max (guitars, vocals), who’s the only original member of the band, and company serve us a slightly different take on death/thrash metal than Loudblast. It was always, let’s say, closer connected with death metal itself and thrash influences aren’t too huge in my opinion. It doesn’t of course mean they’re as far away or as hidden as you can’t recognize them during the listening. That’s even, as in the case of all precursors of death metal, bands who created the genre in the eighties, contrary. But at the same time, you must be a little more focused on music to be able to notice them then in case of mentioned before legend coming from around Lille. Of course, in general you can hear similarities between both ensembles. But that’s as clear as a day for me since they play the same genre of music and even started to do this in the same period.
Anyways, we have here to do with eleven pieces of old-school obscurity. Well, actually with ten ones, because the last one, “Zechariah 3:1” is some kind of outro, even if there’s also, let’s call it, regular electric guitar play. Opening the album “Extreme Unction” begins with an intro, too. So, also at this point we’re into a very old-school tradition – once a lot of stuff had such structure and especially the intro was something almost obligatory. Creativity itself, at least that’s like that in my case, takes us back to good old times when metal was even more elite than it’s nowadays, when posers were being exterminated with all ruthlessness, when participation in mosh pits wasn’t fun for good boys and girls! Guys play mostly in middle tempos with a lot of guitar tricks characteristic of just thrash. Riffs are also quite often into this, let’s call it, brutal way of playing this subgenre of Metal. I can hear, now, a sentence addressed to people who don’t know Mercyless at all, something common with Dutch school of the genre. I mean here “Malevs Maleficarvm”, “Consuming Instinct”, maybe in some way “To the Gory End” or even “The Reck”. Do I have to write what bands I mean?
However, I could name one more album here and it’d be probably the best way to let you know what to expect here, but since French ensembles aren’t, and never were, too well-known, I think it’d be a quite meaningless act from my side. So, instead I say you should buy this, available in all formats you can even think about, a masterpiece of old-school extreme and merciless playing as soon as possible! And I’m sure of two things. The very first one is you’ll fall in love with that. The second is you do everything, if you don’t have them, to get their earlier records (that’s possible to buy two first ones, coming from 1992 and 1993, in Osmose – both as vinyls and CDs) immediately!
