Those Who Reign Below

This French band has existed—off and on—since 1987, and you can tell, because the sound of this is all about that classic era. If there's one band Mercyless sound the most like, it is Pestilence—the old Consvming Impvlse Pestilense, back before they went all prog-jazz. The riffs are more complex than the standard, even if the songwriting does not have as much bite to it. Guitarist Max Otero's vocals are even a dead ringer for Patrick Mameli's back in the day on albums like Testimony of the Ancients. So this really sounds like what if Pestilence had taken a different route and become more like Angelcorpse. This is derivative as hell, but it still kicks ass.