The Mercury League have been knocking about for just over a year now and in that time they’ve already started to make a name for themselves. The quartet hail from Sunderland and will batter your senses with something which isn’t quite hardcore but is more aggressive than skate-punk; either way TML have a hard hitting sound which doesn’t take many prisoners.
Considering they haven’t been a band all that long in the scheme of things and judging from this four track demo, TML could well be a force to be reckoned with in the not so distant future. Not just because their music will appeal to hardcore and skate-punk fans alike but simply because their potent blend of the two sub-genres is actually pretty fucking good. The aggression and anger portrayed in the vocals sounds genuine (which is something of a rarity these days), the guitars sound crunching and TML generally have struck a good balance between a raw yet almost refreshing sound.
However, listening to this demo I have to say that TML are not quite the finished product yet; there’s still room for improvement as there’s a few scrappy moments and the production is pretty weak. Neither of these though are really faults within the actual songs if you get me. There are some really clever ideas on these tracks, especially the guitar riffs which I have to extra praise to, ‘Questioning your Reasons’ highlights this perfectly, but I feel that given time to mature the band can improve and expand even further on the rock solid base they’ve already built.
This is the most promising demo I’ve heard from a UK band in a fairly long time, there’s certainly a hell of a lot of potential here which I’m sure will help TML explode into the Premier League of the UK scene within the next year or so. I’m going to keep a watchful eye on this lot as this demo has almost got me gagging to hear what their next release will sound like already.
Mike
www.themecuryleague.co.uk
www.purevolume.com/tml