Genre: Death Metal
Country: France
Label: XENOKORP
Year: 2020
Most of you remember the mighty Mercyless as France’s answer to Deicide or Malevolent Creation that betrayed, if not their fans, surely themselves, and somewhere in the 90’s jumped on the nu metal wagon. But even though they started perfectly with a glorious release such as Coloured Guneral in 1993 as Helloween wisely told as once “…it’s the rise and fall, the price for all…”, so their choice to change musical style almost destroyed them. The 13 years long hiatus proves it. Their return on 2013’s Unholy Black Splendor was a solid comeback but it was 2016’s Pathetic Divinity album that put them back on the Death Metal map. So now the bar is set rather high for these French veterans as they won’t have another, third, chance if failure hits their door. Thankfully it seems that Time made them wiser. They avoid mixing vocal lines too high, while the production is crystal clear making everything audible. They avoid lacking variety, even though not all songs are memorable and sometimes some ideas are a bit repetitive, but of course not like we hear a different version of the same song. The dark melodies, the blast beats, the tremolo pick and the high speed thrash influenced guitars guarantee that your head will blow. A decent, solid and blasphemous release that suits fine with this weird as fuck year that comes to its end in less than 50 days. On the band’s 33th year, “The Mother of All Plagues” declares that Mercyless still rages on, as it is an album that is standing proud, strong and fierce. Nice production at VAMACARA studio (OTARGOS, LOUDBLAST, SAVAGE ANNIHILATION…), while the artwork cover is totally perfect and outstanding, courtesy of Nestor AVALOS (BLOODBATH, DARK FUNERAL, BLUT AUS NORD…).
4,5/6