AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WITHOUT MERCY — “DISINFECT THE SOUL”

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Oct 072020
 

 

We have for you today one of those uncommon music videos that both effectively interprets and amplifies the potential messages of the song and runs the risk of making it hard to concentrate on the music. This isn’t intended as a criticism. It’s just that the video is so explosively wild and so surprisingly unnerving that you probably need a second chance to really pay attention to what you’re hearing. Fortunately, that’s an easy thing to do because the song is such a ravager on multiple levels.

That song, “Disinfect the Soul“, is a vicious and arresting track off an album named Seismic that’s set for release on November 20th by the band Without Mercy from British Columbia, who draw their inspirations from such groups as Cattle Decapitation, Meshuggah, Whitechapel, Pantera, and Decapitated. In addition to the talents of these four Canadians, the album also features guest appearances by Jeff Loomis (Arch Enemy, ex-Nevermore) and Chris Broderick (Act of Defiance, ex-Megadeth, ex-Jag Panzer), and “Disinfect the Soul” happens to be a song that features Broderick‘s eye-popping talents. Continue reading »

AN NCS VIDEO PREMIERE: WITHOUT MERCY — “BURN”

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May 032016
 

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Mouchido (pronounced mo-itchy-doe) is the name of the forthcoming EP by Vancouver’s Without Mercy. It’s the Japanese word for “repeat” or “to do one more time”, a title chosen for multiple reasons, in part because it is a re-recording of a previous release that now includes the band’s new vocalist. “In addition to that”, explains the band’s founder and guitarist DJ Temple, “I hold hold close ties with Japanese culture so I thought it would be the perfect time to introduce those lines into our music.” As an introduction to Mouchido, we bring you a video for the song “Burn“, which has a story of its own. Again, from DJ Temple:

“On the surface, ‘Burn‘ shows a decent into hell. The imagery and content seems to follow the rhetoric of a burning and painful afterlife. In reality, ‘Burn‘ is actually about the decent into madness. Your own personal hell while you battle your inner demons and face your own addictions. Listeners of this song can hear references to famous depictions of damnation from other literary worlds and even a very famous video game.” Continue reading »

GIRL GROWLERS – PART 4

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  29 Responses »
Dec 052011
 

Here’s the last feature in today’s impromptu mini-series on female-fronted metal bands who are not Amaranthe.

When I started collecting bands for this series, this last post was originally going to be about a Vancouver band called Without Mercy (pictured above). About six weeks ago, I got an e-mail from an NCS reader (David) pointing me to them, and more specifically to the YouTube channel for their female vocalist, Alxs Ness.

But today, when I got the idea of pulling together a handful of female-fronted bands as compensation for that Amaranthe thing and started doing a little homework about Alxs, I found out that at some point over the last six weeks she had become the vocalist for yet another Vancouver band called Abriosis. So, if I’m understanding things correctly, she will be the vocalist for both bands. [CORRECTION: Since posting this piece originally, I’ve learned that Alxs did leave Without Mercy, but Without Mercy is moving ahead with a new vocalist and working on new music.]

Abriosis put out a self-titled EP in 2008 and a debut album earlier this year called Tattered and Bound. Both of those collections were pre-Alxs Ness, so that sort of disqualifies them for discussion in this post. Instead, what I have for you after the jump is an amusing video (complete with some toaster-ball near the end) depicting how Abriosis met their new vocalist, and a second video of the band jamming one of their songs with Alxs behind the mic. Not surprisingly, Abriosis plans to record a new EP next year with the new line-up. Abriosis has a Facebook page here.

Without Mercy released an EP in 2007 called All Else Fails and then a self-titled debut album in 2009, which is available for streaming and purchase via Bandcamp. I like the heady dose of death-thrash brutality I’ve heard so far from the album, and I’m putting up an album stream for you to hear after the jump. But, first things first — the YouTube clip that David sent me featuring Alxs’ vocal cover of “Eaten” by Bloodbath. Elize Ryd, eat your heart out. Continue reading »