Saturday 11 June 2011

Merciless Terror - Perpetual Devastation


Bad News Records 2011

 1. Shattered Existence 2. Vortex Of Death 3. Perpetual Devastation 4. Antagonistic Slaughter 5. The Dead Crimson Skies 6. Severance
Its raw, its ugly, its old school, straight from the Death Thrash School of metal. This six-track e.p. took me back to the early 90’s when I first began listening to extreme metal. Simple song structures throughout, with the backbone of the songs being thrash orientated, but with added death metal elements. The intro to ‘Shattered Existence’ actually reminded me of ‘From Beyond’ era Massacre, which is about as old school as it gets. Even the vocals are old school in their sound and delivery (reminiscent of Obituary and Morgoth in places), although vocalist Dale isn’t afraid to mix it up now and again, even venturing into ‘pig squeal’ territory on ‘Antagonistic Slaughter’.
Songs remain mid-paced throughout, riffs being thrash led with the death metal element to MT's sound ever present. There are one or two added ‘blast’ sections for variety, which alomost venture into grindcore (early napalm death era) but to me these felt slightly out of place given the overall feel to the songs. Last track ‘Severance’ is a fitting finale to this e.p, the pace slowed down to create a chilling old school atmosphere, which makes for a catchy, memorable song. The production is raw and suits the music well. The drums are too high in the mix and aren’t the best sounding in the world, but they don’t need to be really given what MT is trying to achieve.
Overall a good effort! If MT are trying to be old school, to remind us of how extrme metal use to sound, then they are succeeding.
6/10

No comments:

Post a Comment