Midnight – No Mercy For Mayhem

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Review by Jason Guest

Hells Headbangers

Release date: 19 August 2014

With a bunch of demos, splits, and EPs behind them (all released in 2012 as the Complete and Total Hell compilation reviewed here), Midnight’s first full length appeared eight years after the band emerged in 2003. Beer-soaked, debauched, satanic, dripping in metal, black, speed, d-beat, punk, and driven by attitude and aggression, 2011’s Satanic Royalty was an intense blast of filthy, ragged, and rabid metal glory. 2014 and Midnight has returned with its second full length, No Mercy For Mayhem. And nothing’s changed.Still a ferocious and feral bunch, Midnight remain as unruly and unkempt as they do abrasive and brutally blunt. Laced with violent riffs, manic leads, infectious choruses and more hooks than a fetish festival, No Mercy For Mayhem is a beast of an album unaffected by that oh-so-common malady known as “second album syndrome”.

Innovation has never entered into mainman Athenar’s vision. What matters is authenticity, conviction. Retro and revivalists are ten-a-penny right now and most if not all amount to little more than tribute bands aping everyone from Venom and Bathory to Discharge and Motorhead who label it “old school” in a vain attempt to give it some sense of authenticity. Not bad bands to take inspiration from, but imitation is far from laudable. The bands that matter are those that capture that spirit, those that live and breathe it and load it into every note, every syllable, and every bone-crushing beat. Midnight is such a band. And No Mercy For Mayhem is testament to that.

Midnight – No Mercy For Mayhem9 out of 10

Track listing:

  1. The Mercy Curse
  2. Evil Like A Knife
  3. Prowling Leather
  4. No Mercy For Mayhem
  5. The Final Rape Of Night
  6. Degradation
  7. Woman Of Flame
  8. Try Suicide
  9. Whiplash Disaster
  10. Aggressive Crucifixion
  11. Destroy Tsunami’s Power (Bonus track)

As an added bonus, initial CD pressings of No Mercy for Mayhem will include a bonus track and a whole bonus disc comprising Midnight’s super-limited Alive on the Streets of Cleveland live LP.

Track listing:

  1. Black Rock’n’Roll
  2. Satanic Royalty
  3. All Hail Hell
  4. Violence on Violence
  5. I Am Violator
  6. Holocaustic Deafening
  7. Endless Slut
  8. …On The Wings of Satan