Artist: Merciless
Country: Sweden
Label: Darkness Shall Rise Productions
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD
Year: 2025
Obviously, Merciless is mainly known for their downright cult debut album. Not only for the musical content and its wide influence on the Swedish Extreme Metal scene or the fact that some of the musicians would go on to other well-known Swedish metal bands, ‘The Awakening’ (1990) is perhaps best remembered for being the first ever release on Mayhem’s Euronymous’ infamous Deathlike Silence Productions label. Yet, even before ‘The Awakening’ the band already gained considerable underground fame with the two demos released in 1987 and 1988.
Although having been bootlegged at least twice in the past fifteen years or so, those two demos are now compiled by Darkness Shall Rise Productions and made available officially for the first time – and on vinyl as well, as both earlier bootlegs only appeared on CD. After hearing these demos again and having revisited ‘The Awakening’ for good measure, it is as plain as day that these demos should not only be preserved as historical relic from the past. In fact, both demos still stand tall in today’s Extreme Metal firmament.
We are presented with the demos in chronological order, meaning we’re starting with ‘Behind The Black Door’. Compared to ‘Realm Of The Dark’ and the later recordings of the band, the most obvious difference is that this first demo has Kalle “Kåle” Aurenius on vocal duties. While these four tracks do sound distinctly rawer in nature, their production is not at all bad and rather easy to enjoy. Especially considering we’re talking about a demo that is almost 40 years old and played by a couple of kids, as they were all around their mid-teens back then. On a musical level ‘Behind The Black Door’ sets already the pace and tenure of the band’s future, the upbeat Thrash Metal with a crunchy edge that we now recognize as being Death Metal-tinged was already there early on. While a lot of bands in this specific musical direction took their influences mainly from bands like Sodom and Kreator, Merciless opted for something slightly different. Of course, obvious elements of the Unholy Trinity of German Thrash Metal are easy to pick up, but there is an even more prominent role for American-style brutality along the lines of Possessed, Slayer and especially Dark Angel.
Up next is ‘Realm Of The Dark’, released only a year later but showing a huge step up already. Not only do Roger “Rogga” Pettersson’s vocals add a lot to the aggressive nature of the music, the music itself sounds way more powerful. Yet, at the same time there’s more Sodom and especially Kreator in the mix in addition to the aforementioned Dark Angel. While ‘Behind The Black Door’ already was an more than outstanding demo, also on a musical level, on ‘Realm Of The Dark’ these young guys clearly outdid themselves. Unsurprisingly, Euronymous was a big fan of this demo tape in particular and the band landed a deal with that newly formed label. Just like the music is a clear step up from the band’s first effort, so is the powerful sound of this second demo – not even that far removed from what the band would show on ‘The Awakening’. Truly a violent punch in the teeth, even today, well over 35 years later.
In the wake of Bathory, it were bands like Obscurity, Mefisto, Morbid and Merciless that paved the way for the thriving Extreme Metal scene in Sweden. But again, it is definitely not merely the historical significance of these recordings that makes them worthwhile. Because of the outstanding sound quality (relatively speaking) and musicianship of the youngsters, these eight tracks (four of which would later appear on ‘The Awakening’) are more than good enough to make happy campers out of anyone into furious and brutal Thrash Metal
