Labels: Beach Impediment
Review by: Alex Hannan
MERCY KILLINGS’ debut 7″ holds 6 short sharp numbers which hit a sweet spot in terms of sound and speed, sounding in the opener “F.B.A.T.P” as if DEATHREAT took their foot off the accelerator just a hair. A churning bass intro spits you out into a mean powerchord attack with gutturally barked vocals. A great start. “Forever I roam” is more mid paced, the riffs not fancy but pleasingly symmetrical, reminding me of the underrated HAIL MARY – and peels into a guitar solo which is two parts technical ability and one part slightly ramshackle charm, avoiding overtwiddling… Throughout the 7″ the riffs are effective, stripped down and interesting. The two guitars beef up the sound rather than interacting a whole lot, but that sits fine with the prevailing style.
The vocalist has an experienced-sounding delivery, riding the band’s momentum well and phrasing everything convincingly, a good energy, my only issue being the odd lyrical moment where word choice and word order become unconvincing out of the need to rhyme. “The wartorn countries / their scorched expanses / resulting from the enemy’s advances”. It’s a small point… “Closed door” is the hit on the flipside, another barreling mid paced attack. Refreshing to hear some hardcore that leaves the effects, and the pretensions of mystery at the door, and just gets the songwriting and the energy down to a tee. Wanna see them live!