Crestfallen indeed!
The Mercy Suite pride themselves on not being 'insipid and bland pop-punk and corporate emo', which is all very well if you have a nice original and brand new sound of your own - this is their biggest problem, as they sound like many, many more bands before them and although having (purposefully) not mentioned the genre, they do fit nicely under the screamo umbrella, which of course is the new emo!
Things don't start off on a good footing with a pointless intro which is neither atmospheric, scene setting nor even just a short song, as it's basically a fifty second slow jam that they couldn't be bothered to put lyrics too. 'The Far Avengers Feet', kicks in and if you look at the lyrics it's virtually one long sentence! And this appears to be a rant about propaganda with some finger pointing at life's hierarchy structure.
'Blueprint' raises false hope for me with a gentle start and I'm thinking that this could well be something a little bit different, however this soon ends up in a fast beat, with quick simple riffing and shouting vocals of pain and emotion. The Mercy Suite are so say a mixture of 'fast, melodic skate-punk colliding with a new, more mature hardcore sound' however I see no elements of skate-punk whatsoever, and only flashes of hardcore. It's hard to even say this bands name in the same breath as Suicidal Tendencies or Sick Of It All. There is no adrenaline rush of the skate-punks from California, or the real aggression and passion of the New Yorkers.
'The Green And Pleasant Land' shows a fleeting glimpse of the raw aggression that is bubbling under, threatening, but hardly ever coming to the surface. 'Finest Hour' rushes by without much note of originality, which is the main problem here. The music doesn't stand out at all and just gives a noise for singer (and former drummer) Iz to scream over. The lyrics are thought provoking and well written, but what is the use of this when they are screamed out? You may as well being shouting out about the price of tomato soup down at Tesco's for all the good it makes!
'These Four Walls' threaten to hold my attention for the duration with the stop/start guitars, and vocals that could almost be described as singing. It is perhaps more to do with the blandness of the songs surrounding it, than the brilliance of the one song itself. With four songs still to listen too, I am quite frankly becoming bored...
'Single Line Comply', 'Waiting On The One' and 'Kiss Of Death' roll on by slower than I'm sure they were and we are thankful that the last song, 'Silent Scream' is an epic four and a bit minutes long, honest.
The good news is that The Mercy Suite are not the worst band that I have had the pleasure of reviewing, and they play fairly decent songs, however the lack of any spark, or originality gives us an album that will be snapped up by insomniacs all over the globe.