Fast and heavy thrash riffs, fast drumming, rough vocals, and some more simple yet relentless riffs. Riffs riffs riffs. Similar to their first demo, Merciless are a riffs-first simple extreme thrash band. It is quite apparent that the riffing is derived from early Kreator, and bands like Slaughter Lord. Overall, the music reminds me of Morbid Saint, but smoother.
The production is pretty well balanced, it's dirty and distorted thrash, but the drums have a nice punch and the snare tone is strong without sounding extremely 80s, and everything is audible. The guitar and vocal tones are nice, crunch and reverb from the guitars as is expected of extreme thrash, and the vocals are gruff and growly, soaked in reverb to sound evil as hell. The first track reminds me of their fellow swedes Grotesque, while the second has a striking resemblance to Morbid Saint. Similarities are likely, as it's simple thrash that relies almost purely on sliding power chords and chugging, and the beauty is in the execution.
Merciless play aggressive and evil sounding thrash, simple and high speed. It's quite a period piece for late 80s extreme thrash, sounding a lot like a few other leading bands of the time while pushing Venom's simplicity a step more extreme and a few steps faster. Merciless focused a little bit better than their first demo on this one, and while both were good, this one's a bit stronger. Top notch demo death/thrash.
Dark and crunchy with a steady fast tempo, thrashing consistently for 14 minutes. Balanced production, a little on the thin side, pretty good for an extreme 80s demo. Has the feel of a dirty old school death metal feel, with thrashy riffing blended nicely with growly shouts into a death/thrash package.
Similar to Grotesque but thrashier and a tad less black in both the vocals and riffing. Shows a lot of influence from early Sodom. Simple, power-chord thrash riffs over simple drumming, similar to early Kreator. The riffing is relentless, but it's just really simple thrash with power chords and chugging up and down the neck, in the best way possible. This is an example of the late 80s tendency to purely focus on aggressive thrash riffs, and they do it well. The vocals are gruff and have some echo, somewhat coherent as it wasn't full-blown death metal, just extreme thrash. Overall it sounds like a cleaner, fixed-speed version of Slaughter Lord, or maybe a lighter/smoother incarnation of Morbid Saint. Notable and worth a listen if you're a fan of any sort of old black/death/thrash.
While it's not very dynamic in terms of speed, songwriting, or intensity, none of those detract from it as it clocks in at around 14 minutes. This is a strong and consistent death/thrash demo and deserves a listen if you enjoy that style.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
