Another Scottish band making the Scene
Mercury Tilt Switch hail from Dundee, Scotland. There seems to be a lot of good music coming out of Scotland these days but I'm not so sure about Mercury Tilt Switch. The vocals and the general tune of each song doesn't seem to fit. It might be easy to class them as a typical brit-indie rock band, along the same sort of lines as Biffy Clyro or similar, but there certainly seems to be some punk influences in there too. The one strength of this album is it's variety. To begin with, we are treated with a soothing, instrumental track. 'Germs' is extremely relaxing and not quite what I expected.
'School of Thought', however, ups the tempo a little bit and sets the tone for the rest of the album, which is not to say all the remaining songs are "samey". 'Trench Run' sort of annoyed me with it's obvious relationship to Starwars. I think, even by this point, the vocals were beginning to annoy me, and again, they didn't seem to mesh with the overall tune from the guitars and drums. 'Not If I Get You First' does have a punk feeling to it, but yet again, something sounds a little wrong. There seems to be no discernible tune at certain points.
'Aorta Recall' starts off sounding like a Seether track, with its quiet start and cleaner, less shouty vocals. It certainly has that feel to it and does a good job of breaking up the album a little. 'Shell' is a somewhat sobering and sad song, with lots of minor chords and sounds quite melodic with vocals that finally do fit. 'For Me To Know' seems to drone on quite a bit with some sort of chanting in the background during a riff that just seems to grate on a little too long. 'Houdini Trick' has much softer vocals than the beginning of the album and seems to remind me a little of Tool with its distorted and heavy, yet slower guitar riffs.
The last track, 'The Signs Are There' is a nice, little acoustic number, which doesn't surprise me too much. It builds nicely into an electric guitar powered, sad song that leaves you in a slightly depressed mood. It seems the quieter, more sobering songs are where Mercury Tilt Switch's strengths begin to show.
Overall, the beginning of the album is a little heavier and generally, the vocals seems to be a tad muted as if they were in the background, especially on the more punk-like tracks. I get the impression that the more shouting and louder vocals simply don't fit or don't have the power. A talented band, but not one that'll make my regular music rotation.