Merciless, is the legendary Swedish Death/Thrash-Metal band featuring drummer Peter (Starwind) Stjarnvind, also in Entombed, Erik Wallin - guitars, Roger (Rogga) Pettersson - vocals, and Fredrik Karlen - bass. They were one of the first underground bands of this type to emerge in Sweden, inspired by the early days of bands such as Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and Bathory. The band formed back in the summer of 1986. Since then it has been your typical Spinaltap-sih, Heavy Metal band problems, line up changes, shitty labels, etc. The first incarnation of the group was Erik (guitar), Fredrik (bass), Stefan Carlsson (drums), and vocalist Kale. This early line up did some local gigs under the names "Obsessed" and "Black Mass" before they decided to go with the tag "Merciless" in 87. After their first demo, '87's "Behind The Black Door", Kale was replaced by Roger. 1988 saw demo number two, "Realm Of Dark", which moved 2000 copies, and landed them their first record deal with Norwegian label "Deathlike Silence Productions". The first full-length outing would turn out to be 1990's "The Awakening". They then did some extensive touring with bands like Entombed, Dismember, Dissection, and Sepultura. 1992 saw the release of album number two. "The Treasures Within", but, by the time it was out, drummer Stefan was replaced by Peter. In '93 they released their third platter of evil, "Unbound". Then in '94, they broke up, after getting shafted just one too many times. But years past, and as fate would have it, the spark was eventually rekindled, and they started to record their forth full-length in May of 2002, and now we have it, the self-titled, "Merciless" CD, the first release on the new Black Lodge label. On my first listen, I have to admit, I wasn't that impressed. I had heard a lot of hype, and quite frankly, I thought it had been misplaced. Sure, we had some well-executed Thrash-Metal, with strong Death-Metal overtones, but it's nothing we haven't heard a million times before. It wasn't until my second spin, that I really began to notice the strong groove going on underneath all the shredding guitar work. Songs like "Violent Obsession" and "Human Waste" just have an incredible hypnotic, underlying head-bangin' groove. Drums are solid, and the vocals are in the same vein as Kreator, Carcass, or Sodom. This disc is not a revelation, or the best of its kind, but I can see it easily working its way into a semi regular rotation on my deck.RATING = 7.5