MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD „Merciless”

Music: Metallic Hardcore
Country: USA
Website: http://www.mostpreciousblood.com
Duration: 41.04


Cool Songs: Shark Ethic, Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves, Temporary Solution to a Permanent Problem, Mad As the March Hare, Damage Control Freak, Oxygen Debt

Kicking off with a truly jaw dropping opening salvo – the haunting choral vocals (sampled from Sister of Mercy’s ‘This Corrosion’) embedded underneath a crushing riff and thumping back beat lasts all but 40 seconds, but as a introduction to the new album from NYC’s Most Precious Blood, the lead track ‘Shark Ethic’ is incredibly powerful. Two years on from their sophomore effort ‘Our Lady Of Annihilation’ it is clear that ‘MPB’ are out to give the so called ‘Metallic’ hardcore sound a real shake up. On the strength of ‘Merciless’, they may very well succeed.

When it comes to metallic driven Hardcore, the New York City HC ethic has always been my favourite. Agnostic Front, Sick of it All to the mighty Cro-Mags, they’ve always ruled because of their unrestrained aggressiveness, anger and honest street wise attitude. Most Precious Blood are obvious protégés of these NYC masters. The Cro-Mags infused aggression is particularly noteworthy on ‘Merciless’. As far as their previous albums ‘Electronic/Gothic’ element is concerned, other than the massive ‘Shark Ethic’ opening and few minimal undercurrents, clearly such embellishments have taken a back seat in favour of more brutal, smack you in the fucking head guitar riffs. This, my friends, is a very good thing.

The most immediate aspect that hits you about ‘Merciless’ is how incredibly fucking brutal the production is. Oh yes, this simply crushes all comers folks. I’m not sure who Dean Baltulonis or Tom Hutten have worked with before, but the guitar sound and overall mastering of ‘Merciless’ simply rules. Walls of huge hulking riffs cascade from the absolute centre of this disc (axe duo Justin Brennan and Rachel Rosen simply rip) and paired with the throbbing rhythm section, the whole album deals in ‘METALLIC HEAVINESS’. Hard, loud and unforgiving; Merciless in fact!

The other thing I love about ‘Merciless’ is vocalist ‘Rob Fusco’. Graced with an charismatic, authentic ‘hardcore’ vocal tone, his presence is immediately apparent. Anger and rage personified – the guy unleashes his tormented socio-political/anti-religious verbatim as if it his last day on earth. Granted, there is cause to doubt the somewhat ‘contrived’ aggression that some metalcore/hardcore vocalist put forth, but with Rob Fusco you can be assured that there are no such pretensions, he means every fucking word!!

Song wise there is possibly nothing on ‘Merciless’ that touches the heights of ‘Shark Ethic’ (also check Rob’s killer ‘Master Your Fear’ line that close the track), but that’s nothing against the rest of the album. None of it fails in my eyes, although the use of long winded audio/movie samples on ‘Driving Angry’ and ‘Oxygen Debt’ tends to stop the furious momentum built upon by previous tracks. Having said that, the creepy TV-Evangelist sample (with its worshipping ‘I AM’ line) that leads into the truly epic final track ‘Temporary Solution to a Permanent Problem’ works brilliantly. The song itself is possibly the bands darkest composition ever written and emphatically hits home with the bands devout anti-religious stance. Awesome!

There will be an ignorant school of metal punters out there that will take one look at the ‘Trustkill’ label, the hardcore ethic and automatically dismiss ‘MPB’ as just another whiny emo/metalcore band. Pfft!! There is nothing emo about this album folks. Not a clean vocal chorus in ear shot, no mosh pit breakdowns, just straight up aggressive metallic driven hardcore. It rips. I’m sold. And how freaking heavy? It crushes all I tell you. Oh yeah, how about that cover?

note: Quote: 8.8

Tracklist

Shark Ethic
Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves
Driving Angry
Damage Control Freak
Mad As the March Hare
Type A Personality
Oxygen Debt
Diet for a New America
Curse of the Immortal
World War You
Narcoleptic Sleepwalker
A World Without Music
Temporary Solution to a Permanent Problem