Dear nephews and nieces, how Big Daddy here hates trends in Metal! Yes, I despise when some Metal style becomes evident, because we have to deal with tons of bands that have nothing to say that wasn't already said. It becomes problematic when you deal with the so-called Old School Metal, because a great part of the bands that are inside this flood truly has nothing to show, just more of the same, and this is disgusting. I already know SLAYER, CELTIC FROST, DESTRUCTION, SODOM and many more names. Then, don't come trying to sell me something that is emulating what I already know and have on my personal collection of CDs. So, from California (USA) comes MERCILESS DEATH, a trio that follows the same tendency I wrote above. To be honest, how a band with such work could be releasing another album? Yes, I have this question with me, because "Taken Beyond" is a collection of all the clichés I already know. Sorry, you can pass by many, but not by me.

It's just that prototypical Death/Death Metal from the first half of the 80s, taking inspiration on bands as DARK ANGEL, HELLHAMMER, KREATOR, and the names I wrote above. But they don't try to make things work as they can, and are just using the endless clichés I'm tired to hear. Sorry, but this album is a waste of time. The sound quality is the worst part of the work. It's truly moldy, trying to sound as the bands from the past. The tunes are disgusting, and the caption of the sound seems to be done the worst way possible to sound as raw and organic as their influences. No, this is not what I call a sound quality from the 80s, but someone cloning another bands' works.

I had a hard time hearing this album again and again, in the search for some positive points. The clear idea that I have is: "Taken Beyond" could be a good album if wasn't for the need to sound as we were in the 80s. "(Creation) The First Temptation" show some good riffs, the slow tempos and technical work of "Baptism at the Skull", the rhythmical changes presented on "Oath of Revenge", the good work of bass and drums on "Christians of Gomorrah" and the short "Convictions" are the songs where we can find some good ideas. But they are drowning in this cursed and disgusting need to be a band from the 80s. I'm full of this trend, so let a true Metal fan from the 80s give you a lesson.

The magic of that time lives in only one idea, the same one that those bands inherited from the giants from the 70s, that still is so simple: they were just trying to be as different from the others as they could, because we, the Metal fans from the old days, despise bands that copied the works from the others. That's all, and if someone told you a different lesson, he or she is lying to you. Take some old interviews from magazines and you'll find this idea being explained time and time again. Man, what a loss of efforts...