MERCYLESS - Abject Offerings
January 13, 2015, 9 years ago
(Great Dane Records)
This France-based death metal band originally released this album on Restless Records (!) in 1992; given that it was death metal, it was 1992, and it was Restless Records, makes sense that it didn't get as much attention as it deserved. Because, wow, this is some solid '92 DM all the way, and while that sound may have played itself out back in that era, revisiting it now when it's done this well is really quite a treat. So there are no surprises whatsoever here, the band's sound firmly a US one, the riffs blazing past like a Hoffman threw them down, the vocals sounding extremely Tardy-esque, the whole thing definitely pining for the Sunshine State, songs like "Without Christ" basically being a composite of all the big names of that scene, but, man, is it done well here. You're tempted to say things like "there's some Loudblast creeping in," but you know you're just trying too hard: Mercyless did USDM circa '92, nothing more, nothing less, and they did a great job of it.
