Mercury Switch "If You Love Me, You'd Take Me to the City" CD
[Indianola]
Okay, there are several problems with this release. First, as minor as it is, the layout on this thing doesn't represent the music at all. I don't know the artwork makes me think of, but it doesn't make me think of technical death metal influenced metalcore with tinges of emo and a million other oddball facets. The second, and most important problem, is that the production on this thing sucks. It's thin as hell, the drums have a weird sort of punch to them that stands out a lot, the bass is absent of low-end fullness, the guitars have no crunch or power whatsoever, and the vocals are equally flimsy. Oddly enough the only thing that sounds good is the clean guitar tone. Go figure. Strike three? Not only are the songs pretty fucking boring, but they're way too motherfucking long. Who the hells needs over an hour of this stuff, and in four- to seven-minutes doses no less? I'm not into this at all. They're capable musicians and some of the complex riffs are great, but the tempos are too slow, and the fucking range of influences is completely disjointed and makes no sense. I mean, the rocked out riffs in "You Are Here"? The overall zaniness of "Pillar of Salt"? The annoying electronic vocal samples introducing some of the songs, or the sparse electronic influences that rear their heads on rare occasion? This band has no idea what they're going for, unless they're just trying to be weird and don't care what the final results sound like. The artwork is pretty unusual, with the entire outer booklet and back cover covered in bright paintings of skulls, coffins, blood, fire, etc. Inside all of the lyrics are printed in coffin shapes as well. The songs tend to deal with personal hardships, occasionally throwing in the somewhat out of place commentary on the modern world ("Rich in Technology"). I'm not turned away by the lyrics, but they don't add to anything in my opinion. These guys need to cut the shit and just play technical death metal with a real recording. Throw away the emo and metalcore influences, throw away the extraneous crap, and just shred. They've got the ability, but this is a disc full of crap that feels like it's never going to end. Imagine Pestilence, early Faith No More, and the entire Solid State Records roster throwing a tea party at which all of the bands jam together and suck tremendously. Yeah... it ain't that fun. (2/10)
Running time - 65:12, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: uhhh, none of them are really that good at all]
Indianola Records - http://www.indianolarecords.com

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