‘The American dream, It’s easy to see, Can’t get away, Got to get paid, To dig my grave’ (Lost Time)

Mercy are born of fierce fusion of Austin (Altar Of Eden, Save Our Children) and New York (Acid Casualties, Cross, Mirage) hardcore.  Stylistically, it is those New York influences that arguably force their way to pre-eminence on this, the band’s first vinyl release and follow-up to last year’s self-titled demo.

Think, perhaps, frantic early to mid-1980s USHC melded with the scrappily furious Italian hardcore of the same era and then filtered through a tensely abrasive lens that introduces a bleakly claustrophobic tension.  The twin guitars seethe with a ragged, yet densely layered discordance, while the rhythm section locks in with a frenzied zeal, equal parts bludgeoning fury and manically dexterous fills.

Meanwhile, the desperation saturated vocals contemplate getting by amid the suffocating anxiety and isolation of an atomising society.  From the scorching intensity of Coming Up to the lacerating riffage of Lost Time, and then from the choppy agitation of Morbid Sights to the bristling despair of Dies Of Red Tape, the eight tracks hurtle by bathed in an unhinged sense of desolation.