Merciless Death - Evil In The Night
Heavy Artillery Recordings

file under speed / thrash metal

Koen: Heavy Artillery Records just unleashed their first release, the debut album by Los Angeles’s Merciless Death (the band name obviously is taken from the famous Dark Angel song). The disc features cover artwork by legendary Death, Possessed, Nuclear Assault, Evil Dead, etcetera artist Ed Repka. Songtitles include ‘Slaughter Lord’, ‘Deadly Assault’, ‘Command Death’, ‘Burn In Hell’, ‘Exumer’, ‘Act Of Violence’, ‘The Final Slaughter’ and ‘Ready To Kill’. Off course the Eighties thrash metal freaks know what I’m talking about here!

Yeah, this CD contains old school thrash metal which is heavily inspired by renowned thrash acts like Protector, Razor and Artillery and there’s no place for weak-hearted people who think “Metallica and Megadeth are gods!” (This is an important quote taken from the CD-booklet haha). The production sounds a bit muddled, things are not as clear as they should be, but perfectly fits the direction in which Merciless Death’s interpretation of thrash metal leads the play. The total playing time is only 25 minutes, so this is hardly outstanding value.

To conclude this review I would once again like to emphasize that Merciless Death has created a CD which is important for each and every Eighties thrash metal addict around. This is a good record, this ain’t no track skipper and it really hits the target. The “hate list” on the back of the CD booklet really is hilarious. What about “much hate to people who prefer Pantera over Razor” or “much hate to Overkill’s two guitarists at the Whiskey: you were dicks! Fuck you!” The band has the metal heart on the right spot and all current trends are to be ignored completely here!

Rating: 80/100 (details)

http://www.myspace.com/mercilessdeath