The Awakening

I've come across Merciless quite a long time ago, but I have been waiting way too much time before giving their material a serious listen. Let's say that I am not disappointed at all with what I heard from these guys, to a certain degree of course. Coming from Sweden, the band were pretty much one of a kind in that country at the time, even before the black metal scene came out. Merciless were playing at their beginning some sort of thrash metal, but at such level of aggressivity that it has that death metal influence as well on the sound. Formed in 1986, they released two demos in the 80s before having any albums out. Although the first album was recorded and completed in 1989, "The Awakening" was not released before 1990. Mostly known as the "ANTI MOSH 001", it was the first record released by DPS, the label of Euronymous (R.I.P). We at least cannot deny that the guy had good taste when it comes to old school 80s metal for signing such band on his label. The "The Awaking" album is basically one of the last few records that came out before the large amount of Swedish death metal bands started to pull out albums.

Well, the only thing that disappointed me on this album is its very short length of only nearly 27 minutes. When listening to such album, I get the feeling that it ends so fast that I didn't even had the time to dig the entire thing. I needed quite a few listens in order to really start appreciating the whole thing, at least it definitely worth it. When a record starts with a song called "Pure Hate" for instance, it gives you a pretty good idea of what you are going to hear. At the very beginning, you can tell that the guys from Merciless were fans of the 80s German thrash metal scene. In fact, I don't always agree with the band similarities on M-A, but for this case, this is incontestable. Myself being a fan of that scene, I quickly noticed on the first track that it has that Kreator's "Pleasure to Kill" mood, those kinds of riffs are just so easily recognized. One cannot dislike such violence, when he screams "PURE HATE!!!!" with those bestial vocals.

Other than having incredibly fast riffing that put them above most others thrash bands, the drums are furious and devastating, a pleasure to play this in my car, to say the least. Those songs structures actually reminded me of Protector on their "Misanthropy" EP. Songs such as "Denied Birth" or "Dying World" has those interesting riffs that makes the album original, even if it's obvious where they took their inspiration from. If you took "Pleasure To Kill", and push the style even further, you would get tracks like "Dreadful Fate" or "Realm of The Dark". This is basically what I like so much about this album, the intensity is never ending, but they still integrated some cool melodies like in "Bestial Death". However, the focus on the album is mainly the brutality and speed, it doesn't contain too much complexity and the main idea was probably to be as violent as possible. With such a great choice for an album covert art, I couldn't have expect something other than a record with every tracks being killer.

The overall sound on the album is great as well, thanks to its well done production work. I also like the fact that it wasn't recorded in the most popular studios of Sweden at the time, which gives a more unique sound. The instruments have been mixed fortunately for us to hear all the instruments flawlessly, even with its awesome primitive sound. Maybe the content of the album is not overall as memorable as the records they took inspiration from, but I would definitely add such album to my list with them to listen to when I am in this mood. "The Awakening" would please either old school death or thrash metal fans, and I recommend giving this record a listen and enjoy the hatred displayed through it!


Favorite tracks:

Bestial Death
Dreadful Fate
Pure Hate
The Awakening

Around 1990, the pursuit of thrash metal was directed at bands with aggressive, heavy riffs played at high speeds. Death metal was expected to have vocals that sounded evil as fuck, and frantic drumming rounded out the ideal band. This was pretty much the ideal album from an unknown band in 1990, nothing groundbreaking like the premiere bands of the time did, just good, fast, simple, evil thrashing. One of the stronger pieces of the style, though it doesn't stand out with the elite thrashy death metal bands of their era like Morbid Angel.

Four songs appeared on their demos, one from the first and three from the second. The style is similar but shows evolution, plus slightly higher speeds and the sections that weren't at blistering velocity have been pretty much eliminated. This results in the album being 27 minutes long, which is an appropriate length for it.

Everything is simple - the drums are mostly straight blasting, the guitars chug and slide power chords with a bit of tremolo picking, and it's structured in even parts. There is quite a bit of character in the performances though, as the drums feel frantic and fit nicely into the pocket (this refers to timing), and the vocals add a bit more to the loose thrashing feel. The vocals are drenched in reverb, sounding so thick that they drown out everything else at times. They sound extremely evil, thick and powerful, pretty much perfect for bands who took German thrash to the extreme. The unfortunate consequence of the vocals being so powerful is that they practically drown out the thin and crunchy guitar tone at times. While thin guitar tones are very characteristic of the time, it could have improved the album to thicken it up a bit so the cymbals and vocals don't cover it up at all.

Merciless are one of the best at what they did - simple death/thrash that pushed the speed and aggression of their predecessors. It's fast as hell and sounds evil as hell, and that's what they were aiming to do.

In the subgenre of Death/Thrash, Merciless are a band that has almost no equal. Every aspect of their music pushed the boundaries of both speed and aggression to the very limit of human capabilities. Appearing somewhat late in the Thrash scene, Merciless delivered what could be the most forceful sounding album in the entire genre which was much needed at a time when many thrash metal bands were stagnating, and the still developing death metal genre threatened to surpass Thrash in all aspects. Merciless was very unique in that they were on the borderline right between the two genres, and their style displayed the limits in which aging thrash style could played, as well as the many possibilities that the newer death metal genre could yield. Their 1990 debut, The Awakening can be described as bloodthirsty brutal and unrelenting blackened Death/Thrash, which shows no mercy to the listener whatsoever, their innovative style was similar in many respects to Brazil's Incubus, which could be the only band who could match Merciless savagery.

Without even knowing about the band it is clear as soon as the first track, Pure Hate starts playing, you are in for a truly merciless bashing from start to finish. Never before have I encountered an album that can not only displays extremity in terms of speed, but also conveys the emotion associated with the music, directing the atmosphere of it right at you. The thunderous echoing sound of the chainsaw-like tremolo riffs coupled with the steamrolling drums taps into the very mind, and the beginning track Pure Hate conveys just that, savage hatred for mankind, and the ignorance of mainstream society. The energy builds until finally, an unstoppable wall of violent thrashing death reveals itself, which sets the tone for the entire album.

Merciless at this stage in their development bear huge resemblance to Pleasure To Kill era Kreator, only being played about 5 times faster. From the shrieking vocals to the Kreator like tremelo there are many parallels. Additionally, Bathory and Sodom influence are obvious. That still doesn’t keep this band from being original, as in a way, they improve upon and perfect every their predecessors ever did, with even more effect. The Awakening takes everything that made the Teutonic scene for example, and innovates their style even further. The customary Teutonic tendencies of going all out and never loosing intensity is displayed here, only with a level of intricacy, never becoming sloppy, or amateurish.

Just as with Serpent Temptation, the drumming on this album seems to be what sticks out the most. The Driving and Forceful sound of the drums give The Awaking an awe-inspiring level of intensity; even without any blast-beats. Instead, the rare and unique style known as hyper-snare is used here. While not fast enough to be a blast-beat, it's faster than any conventional thrash beat, and effectively aims for the grey area between the two. The hyper-snare style used here is a more deathly feature for the band, and while still used with thrash structure, displays death metal's intensity. Very few thrash metal bands dared to use this style, and was instead a common feature of first-wave death metal and Death/Thrash bands, such as Vulcano, Sepultura (on Antichrist), Incubus, and a French band called Agressor. At times, it seems as if the band is playing so fast everything will fall apart. Take for example the song souls of the dead, which after building momentum, explodes into a fury that seems inhuman. Drummer Stefan "Stipen" Carlsson shows a great amount of talent being able to play at such blasting tempos with such precision. Without a doubt this band, as well as Incubus show the limit in terms of speed in which thrash styled drumming can be applicated. In order to get any faster, blast-beats must be relied upon.

Another interesting aspect of the band, is the twisted, yet well though-out, lyrics. The depth of though and creativity here is more than most you will find. The song Denied Birth speaks about the consequences of eternal life, and impending doom approaching a soul many of millennia old, that desperately searches for mortality, but to no avail. Very different from the more primitive, gore influenced lyrics typical for early death metal.

While being mostly fast, the band does have some moments of time signature changes, and even semi-technical riff work, as heard in Realm of The Dark, and Dying World. These songs in particular are more varied than the rest, and incorporate more complexity, giving hints to what the band would do on later recordings. This is far from primitive material.

In conclusion, I believe that this album displayed two main points; the inherent limitations of the thrash metal genre, and the many possibilities and capabilities of the up and coming death metal genre. The band had shown that the thrash metal structure had been carried to its very limit in terms of aggression. The Thrash beats here were being played as fast as humanly possible, and made in clear to future bands that blast beats use in the death metal fashion were to be incorporated if they wished to achieve higher level of speed. Albums like The Awakening, as with Serpent Temptation, and Neverending Destiny were not only transitional, but were very innovative and revealing as to the future of Death/Thrash, and full-blooded death metal. The once mighty flag that thrash waved was being gradually lowered, and the flag of Death Metal was soon to take its place. Merciless was a band that stood the knife's edge between the two, putting the final word on one genre, and pioneering another. The Awakening is an underrated classic.

Sweden at the beginning of the 90s was simply amazing for the quantity of death metal bands featured. Grave, Entombed, Unleashed, Carnage and Dismember were just the top of the iceberg but, going under the water, metaphorically, we could find lots of other bands that more or less contributed in filling and festering the panorama. Merciless was one of these bands and their brutal style featured also big thrash and blackened elements. Their debut is an obligatory stopover for the aficionados of this genre and a small cult on the underground.

The Awakening is very short actually, but has some really good and brutal songs. We start from “Pure Hate” that featured lots of relentless and brutal riffs. The production is not the best here, especially in volumes but the bands is so angry that is able to level everything on its way to the dark. The atmosphere is violent but at the same time it’s also suffocating and dark. The riffs have lots of influences from the classic brutal thrash metal and the American style in particular even if we cannot hide a certain influence from the German bands and I found something from early bathory too, but maybe it’s just a personal thing.

The vocals are raspy and with a hint of black metal inside and they follow the same style of the music. The songs have remarkable tempo changes and furious, sudden restarts. For example check the ones of “Dreadful Fate”. The bass drums triplets and the up tempo parts are heavily influenced by the very first American death metal with always heavy influences from thrash metal. What really shocked me here is the pure burden of anger and occultism that lays in every single song…it’s unbelievable. From the crunchy and low tuned guitars distortion to the reverbs by the vocals and the way they play the drums: everything is made to be fucking heavy and dark.

As always, forget about melodies and these things because they are all about impact. The only ones are about some more speed metal oriented riffs and some dark arpeggios but nothing more. The structures are incredibly dynamic and various and we can find lots of palm muting parts that are easily mixed with tremolo picking parts. The few guitars solos are here to add a heavier dosage of brutality and darkness because they follow the same rawness and brutality of the rest of the songs. Another great song is the blasting “Denied Birth”, but everything is conceived in goodness and brutality and it’s difficult to mark out every single song because you must take this short output in its violence.

This album is a very good surprise for me and it’s another shining gem in my old school blackened death/thrash collection. It’s obscure, a bit forgotten, but give it a chance. This will blow your head up and in a really good way!

The Awakening is German-inspired death/thrash that has an intensity that does not let up, even when the music slows down a couple of notches from the full-blown speedfest. It took me awhile to really get into this album due to the first track being the low point. It seems that all instruments, including the vocals, are desperately trying to keep up to each other. It comes off as being sloppy at the first few listens, in my case the first ten years of listening. However, Pure Hate becomes an enjoyable listen, especially with the anticipation of the rest of the album. The Awakening gets better as the songs progress. Everything from the songwriting, musicianship and the atmosphere it seems are more mature and more accomplished.

The vocals are a sandpapered, barking snarl that contain a rabid viciousness which threatens to rip you apart. When the music slows down to a mid-paced level, the intensity of the drums really pound; speed the music up and the bass kicks in to fill the void of pounding left by the drums. This isn't to say that the drums are weak when the velocity increases, this just gives the bass a chance to crush the listener. Guitar-wise, the shredding is dated, but it is welcome as it harken's back to the yester-year of thrash: The tone is sharp and Merciless.

Overall, this is a fantastic death/thrash album that every metal-head should have in their collection. It may sound dated, but it still has relevance as Thrash continues to evolve. Those who prefer to have a polished production, or grandiose songwriting should avoid this. Those who enjoy ugly and gritty extreme metal should listen.

Sweden has always managed to dish out some of the most enjoyable albums in death metal during the genres blooming stage... Dismember's Like an Ever Flowing Stream, Entombed's Left Hand Path, Grave's You'll Never See. Well, folks, Merciless stood proud among their fellow Swedish titans during the birth of death metal...yet somehow, never really attained the proper recognition of the aforementioned bands. Might it have had something to do with the label they were on (they were one of the first death metal bands on Euronymous’ label – Deathlike Silence) at the time? Who knows? Either way, it’s a travesty – because this is a fucking great album.

You'll most definitely find some riffs that are inspired from the musical playbooks of Seven Churches, Hell Awaits and Scream Bloody Gore. The album does borrow a lot from early American death and thrash metal, but still manages to retain that sweet Swedish touch that made the early Swedish bands so awesome. The chainsaw guitars, unrelenting drumming, hellish vocals…oh yes, this is from Sweden all right. I can imagine that this is what going insane would sound like – constant off the wall aggression that never sleeps and knows no boundaries. Too bad mamma won’t be there to help you.

Songs like ‘Denied Birth’ sound like they could be part of a dark horror movie soundtrack – you know, those sinister melodic parts that signal the killer is coming...and he’s about to kick some ass unless you bow to the power of the riff! Other tracks such as ‘Beastial Death’ just go straight for the throat in an all out bonanza of fast, vicious riffs that will have your neck breaking by the time the song is up. With the dark clouded production that really puts emphasis on the buzzing chainsaw guitars, this makes things all the more intense and threatening, like being trapped in a level of Hell.

The vocals are harsh and raspy, almost as if Rogga were possessed by demons when he performed his vocal duties, much like an early Matti Karki, or Jeff Becerra. Rogga’s screams are filled with malice and (at times) a subtle sense of hopelessness. Most death metal vocalists are not able to pull this off to the convincing degree that Rogga does. “There is no God…just pain and starvation!!!” Fucking classic.

It really is frustrating that bands like Merciless didn’t get much of a chance, because it always makes you wonder what could have been. At least you get to keep a vicious piece of 1990 with The Awakening. Old school death metallers should especially take note of this album.