Mercy Brown(LP)

Mercy Brown is a melodic death metal band hailing from Spokane, Washington USA. This is their self titled debut album, that they have released on their own. Birds the first song with vocals, shows you the pure aggression of the band. A mix of The Agonist and Arch Enemy with come to mind thanks to the dynamic performance of Sera Morgan Hatchett, especially the latter band. Though I feel she is more guttural in her death vocals approach. This is definitely a solid disc, which would be difficult to highlight all the songs, without using some of the same adjectives over and over again. This opener though definitely deals the band's ace in the hole immediately, and that is their vocalist. The groove riffs of Red and Yellow are headbang worthy, with some solid riffs from Chris Canwell. Where The Fire Is follows the same suit, while Hidden In Plain Sight shows you Hatchett's crazy ability to change her vocal styles at will, and still have the same amount of power and emotion. In The Dark is a faster pace song with mostly clean vocals, which is a nice diversion from the mix of death and clean vocals, that were used in the previous songs. The falsetto is down right amazing when used, while the Canwell's riffs, and the rhythm section of Josh Schultz(Bass) and Lunden Herndon(Drums) definitely do their jobs with precision.

News Complaint has a punk feel, and not really my first choice in introducing someone to this band. The aggression though on this song, is pretty impressive in itself. One(The Edge Of) is another varied mix of melodic of death metal and groove riffs. While the haunting and atmospheric Nevermind shows another side of the band that is also accented by the vocals of Hatchett, who with all her screams and growls, can be equally somber and melancholic that still demands all of your attention. Codependent features some of my favorite guitar playing on the whole disc,and the clean vocals fit the frenzied instrumentation heard throughout this song. To The Sea is a nearly four and a half minute instrumental song, that is part ambient and melancholic all at the same time, honestly is a bit longer than it should be in my opinion, but is not a bad song at all. Stigma is the longest track at over eight minutes. The haunting intro, the weeping vocals that gradually start to build, would have made you think that Mercy Brown was a Doom Metal band of some kind. This is one of Mercy Brown's greatest strengths, the ability to make each song sound a bit different then the one that came before it.

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The band is:
Sera Hatchett - Vocals
Chris Tanaka Canwell - Guitar
Josh Schultz - Bass
Lunden Herndon - Drums