Mercyless - Unholy Black Splendor

MERCYLESS - Unholy Black Splendor (TRENDKILL Recors - LP 2013)

Mercyless belongs to those death metal bands, which started in the late 80’s, did some albums, then split up and which later decided to come back from the grave after a decade of complete inactivity. There's always a question if such return can give us anything worthy at all. However I love their first two albums, "Abject Offerings" and "Coloured Funeral" (from 1992 and 93), I have to admit that the following two albums (like "C.O.L.D.") were a pile of stinking garbage. Mercyless did a good decision to split up in 2001. But they decided to return ten years later. "Unholy Black Splendor" (2013) is the first result of the new incarnation of Mercyless. So, back to the question - is it possible to record anything worthy and something what would give a good excuse to this comeback? Well, in case of many returning bands the answer is no. Too often the music sounds dull, tired and nothing like what fans of the old stuff would expect to hear. Too often it all sounds like a music from some bored older men, who have nothing better to do, but want to capture a bit of their youth. But the passion, enthusiasm and skills are not there anymore. With Mercyless it's absolutely nothing like that and I am really, really glad to say that "Unholy Black Splendor" belongs to the best comeback albums ever made. More so, for me this album is equally awesome to the classic two records of Mercyless. Every time I listen to it and the old stuff, I always have that impression that finally we have a missing link in the history of this band and we can all forget about that crap they did in the end of the 90's. "Unholy Black Splendor" sounds like a classic, pure to the bone and truly phenomenal, powerful death / thrash metal record – which is exactly what I love to hear from them. 

This album sounds like the time stopped for Mercyless members in 1993 and they never had gotten these stupid ideas to change the musical style of their band. Of corpse the production is a bit more updated, the music also matured a bit, all in all there’s been long twenty years gone since “Coloured Funeral” was released. But the feeling and music are like to the old albums. Which is amazing for me. "Unholy Black Splendor" is a collection of perfect death / thrash, with throat cutting, sharp and aggressive riffs, great technicality, brutality, but also a bit of melody and good balance between some slower and faster parts. The album is monstrous and I love everything about it. For example, when I listen to "Bless Me Father”, I feel goose skin, so fantastic is the riffage there in the beginning and then when Mercyless starts to put some blasts and generally the song is a good mixture of brutality and melody. I am speechless. It sounds incredibly good and that’s exactly a reason why "Unholy Black Splendor" is such a treasured comeback album for me. Awesome songwriting, killer vocals of Max Otero, powerful, crushing production... Everything seems to be just spot on here and it is a pure pleasure to listen to this record. Even more fantastic is the fact that Mercyless didn’t stop on this one album and they keep on recordings killer death / thrash metal up to this day. Excellent. Best French band ever. 

Standout tracks: “I Vomit This World”, “Bless Me Father” 

Verdict: 90/100