Originally written by Chris Redar
In the process of writing this review, I had an incredibly difficult time coming up with the proper analogy for comparative purposes. The list of things I started typing and subsequently abandoned after re-reading included, but was not limited to:
-A well-played hand of poker vs. going all-in on hand one
-The architecture of a nice house vs. pre-fab modular subdivisions
-A strip club at 10 in the evening vs. a strip club at 3 in the morning
-Toaster strudel vs. Pop Tarts ™
What does any of this have to do with Vile Extinction, the debut LP from Nottingham, UK’s Merciless Terror, you ask? Well, the idea was to compare something with the aura of excitement that comes with patience to that of something that is seemingly instantly rewarding but begins to reveal itself as dull when placed under direct scrutiny. And now that my analogy wad has been blown for the duration of this examination, we can get to the business at hand: the music.
It takes exactly one minute and three seconds to know what Vile Extinction is going for. From the one minute, two second slow open of ‘Omicide’ leading into the cymbal grab and triplet picking that begins ‘Doctrine of Malevolence’, this has Deicide by way of Slayer written all over it. Sounds interesting enough on its own, but here’s the downside: we’re talking about In Torment In Hell– era Deicide. The vocals are even Benton-ized, with layering that rarely matches up from line to line. Singer Dale Lindsell, though pissed-off sounding and with a rasp that borders on acidic at times, often sounds a full beat behind the rest of the ever-shuffling lineup. It works on occasion, but generally speaking it’s noticeably distracting.
What won’t distract at any point is a surprise. I probably listened to this thing about 12 times today, and only for the purpose of this writing did I bother to look back at my chosen media player for song titles. Is this one ‘Hateful Abomination’ or ‘World Desolation’? Who the fuck knows. That’s not to say that any song on Vile Extinction is bad on its own, but every one of ‘em is offensively plain. Let me tell you just how vanilla an album we’re dealing with here: I thought a breakdown was about to begin at one point, and I caught myself getting excited. That’s the effect this one has on the senses; even a sharp jab to the eye would be better than the 35 minute coma Vile Extinction brings with a front-to-back listen.
There is a certain type of listener out there that doesn’t need fancy trimmings such as riffs, hooks, variety or catchiness to enjoy a metal album. Not being one of those ‘heads myself, I can’t in good conscience recommend pulling the trigger on what amounts to be an all filler, no killer experience. This kind of straight-forward to the point of nearly pandering DM always makes me think that a band is doing whatever it takes to trick a much bigger band into getting them an opening slot. And so we’ll close with a bit of advice: Try not to fall asleep before Amon Amarth takes the stage, fictional audience.
