Mercürio – Instinto Callejero Review

As sincerely as we’d like to hear and review (or even know about) every worthy heavy metal album to come down the pike, the Last Rites Crew begrudgingly accepted a very long time ago that we’re merely human or, at least, bound by the same limitations. So we’ll never catch ‘em all, as the kids say these days chasing their Pokey Men. And, however valiant, even scooping up a bunch of great stuff mid-year for the Missing Pieces feature is a wonderfully inadequate attempt at compensating for our shortcomings. Even with Captain’s annual mustering of all the best power metal of the year (and, recently, of all recorded time), and Andrew Edmunds blasting the grind reviews out just as fast as his ass can handle, and Sir William and Ryan do their damnedest to delve into all the death metal, and ol’ potty mouth Danhammer doing every fucking thing he can to fit every fucking kickass album we’ve missed into as many Fuck You Fridays as he possibly fucking can, we still we don’t get it all. Fuck.

We’re so sorry we can’t satisfy you, but we are trying so hard! That’s how every once in a while, through sheer try-hard simpiness, we manage to scratch back a shred of that tastemaker sex appeal that made us hot in the first place, if only for a brief lusty moment.

Behold:

The other day I got a Bandcamp notification from Black Legion Records announcing that they were releasing Instinto Callejero, the first full length album of Argentinian heavy metal upstarts, Mercürio, on limited edition cassette tape. It was originally released by the band (and predictably overlooked by us and also fucking everyone else) in April of 2022. The album cover – airbrushed, brightly colored, sexy, and mysterious – was nostalgically alluring, so I bit. The opening notes of intro track “Mision II” rang with that classic 80s synth sound that has been enjoying a rather robust resurgence of late, which seemed fortuitous since I had just been telling my idiot pals that I’ve kind of been obsessing over heavy metal with that special ol’ timey sound. Not all my pals are idiots, actually, some of them (except one) are actually smarter than I am, although I’m objectively more huggable (well, except for the one). Anyway, “Mision II” is brief but bitchin and the perfect lead-in to the title track, which all but sealed the deal for me, being exactly the nostalgic heavy metal beer bong I was hoping for, all bright and bouncy, bold and brash, and exuding all the reckless abandon of the era it beckons.

So there’s lots of this stuff out there, right? You need look no further than the festivals, from stalwarts like Keep It True (23 years!) to the burgeoning popularity of newcomers like Houston’s Hell’s Heroes, to see that modern traditional heavy metal (what the kids are calling NWOTHM) is hot shit. And a lot of it is so good; more than just some dumb trend. Standing out at all is tough, never mind in a crowded field of hungry young kings and queens at the cutting edge of cool. But Mercürio does it with apparent ease, owing largely to the obvious enthusiasm they bring. Did you watch that video up there? Look at them loving every single minute of it. And it’s that spirit that shines through in every single minute of Instinto Callejero.

Mercürio’s heart is pretty simple: nostalgic badass sound, killer riffs, infectious melodies delivered with Martin Barrenechea’s blue-collar vocals and swinging frontman swagger (tongue only barely in cheek), and gang shouts from a rhythm section that understands its foundational importance and also isn’t afraid to lean in for some well-deserved spotlight once in a while. Drench it all in that born-too-late attitude and – boom! – you’ve got the classic package that would have ’em hot-n-ready and all packed in for a Mercürio show in the afternoon slot at a side stage of any reputable festival, even if that was where the band maxed out. It ain’t.

The shining effervescence that lifts Mercürio to at least a late-evening spot on the festival bill is Marty Pinto, axe-wielding wunderkind and principal songwriter. Marty’s talent is reflected throughout Instinto Callejero in a brilliant spectrum of ways, but primarily comes down to an artisan’s balance between uncommon skill and tasteful restraint. He clearly has the chops to just shred all the time, red-lined and flexin’ and concentrating the spotlight to laser focus on his fingers, but you’ll notice he doesn’t. Instead, he is completely of the band, making songs for people who love heavy metal because he loves heavy metal.

Anybody who’s listened to heavy metal for any kind of while at all (or music, generally, really) understands that a band can have great songs, great players, great sound, and still produce a… not great album. And some great albums don’t actually have any of those things! But they have that something else, nearly impossible to define and maybe the most important ingredient of all, even as it’s unique to each band, album, and circumstance. In Mercürio’s case, at least on Instinto Callejero, it’s emotional. There’s a scientifically verified and universally understood pinnacle of emotional experience associated with the unfettering of one’s spirit from some hitherto inescapable drudgery; the end of the work week, time at last to leave a terrible social engagement, the finally merciful termination of a bad relationship. Instinto Callejero is that. Just a million pounds of rocket fueled fuck yeah manifested in gloriously carefree fist-pumping head-banging chorus shouting heavy fucking metal. Who, in their five o’clock Friday-loving mind, doesn’t want a double shot of that?

*Black Legion’s special Peruvian Cassette Version of Instinto Callejero also includes four bonus tracks (three songs from their 2020 EP, Invasion Metalica, plus one), that bump the run time up from 34:36 to 50:47. Plus it looks cooler’n shit. Kick ass.