Song Titles:   
Disc 1  
01) The Thunder, Perfect Ming 1:13
02) Dancing With The Devil 3:38
03) Waste Of Skin 4:03
04) Mercy's Law 4:41
05) Maching Gun 2:29
06) Blood 0:37
07) Creatures Of The Night 3:17
08) Devil Child 5:00
09) The Sideshow 0:20
10) Ragman 6:00
11) Little Nikki 3:25
12) Chosen One 3:51
13) Invisible 4:19
14) Don't Bury Me 0:18
15) Kicking N' Screaming (Out Of The Grave) 4:29
16) Mercy Killing 3:29

After the widespread ear aches caused by grunge, Mother Mercy got rolling and released their debut EP Bad Boys In Black in the mid-90's. It sold considerably well and in 1998, Mother Mercy released their follow-up album Love At First Bite in 1998. It got rave reviews from the heavy metal world, and for good reason. Four years later, Mother Mercy released their follow-up Dancing With The Devil. This album is no enemy to their debut effort...the sophomore jinx (a la Wildside) is nonexistent here. This album is quite superb. It's diverse...meaning their songs keeps the same style without all sounding like clones of one another...which is quite annoying to me.

1) The Thunder, Perfect Mind is essentially an introduction to the album with a distorted voice talking that sounds something like the voice in the introduction to Def Leppard's "Love Bites." It finishes off to get you ready for the songs.
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2) Dancing With The Devil is very much in the vein of a slightly more straight-ahead Beautiful Creatures...it would have easily fit on their self-titled debut. It has some of the same vocal effects and is quite a well-crafted song.
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Score: 9/10

3) Waste Of Skin is the type of song that if the crappy new Headbanger's Ball on MTV2 played, I'd actually watch it. Why? Because Headbanger's Ball is way too focused on nu-metal and anything with annoying screaming trying to pass for vocals. Before you tell me that I'm "stuck in the 80's" or whatever...I'm saying this because it doesn't move the way I think music should. "Waste Of Skin" is a totally awesome hard rock tune that sets the tone for the rest of the album.
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Score: 10/10

4) Mercy's Law is a fast-paced rocker with an awesome guitar riff. This is truly their theme song, "Mercy's Law." To listen to hard rock and metal and blow your speakers (wait a minute, that's Manowar). But their law is to rock your ass off!
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Score: 9/10

5) Machine Gun is without a doubt the heaviest so far. This has kind of a thrashy beat with aggressive guitar and Joe Leste with an attitude problem. Attitude Problem is a good thing in metal. The lead solo here is what really smokes. This song is called Machine Gun for good reason, it's as aggressive as a machine gun.
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Score: 9/10

6) Blood is a break in the album with a horror movie voice making your typical horror movie speech.
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7) Creatures Of The Night would have been right at home of Motley Crue's Shout At The Devil album. Eat your heart out Vince (he may just do that if he keeps eating!).
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Score: 10/10

8) Devil Child has good time rockin' music with not so good time lyrics. It has the kind of lyrics a Poison basher would be into.
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Score: 8/10

9) The Sideshow features a strange voice that says "Step right up, step right up, you'll be terrified, you'll be shocked, you'll be thrilled, inside, inside, and now our amazing attraction..."
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10) Ragman is the longest track on the album...it clocks in at 6:00 even. Around 1986/87 this would have been huge. Ends quickly. Keeps the flavor going.
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Score: 10/10

11) Little Nikki starts out with a chant just like in Toni Basil's "Mickey." Except it doesn't have the cheerleader voices and it says "Nikki", not "Mickey." The metal version of "Mickey."
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Score: 8/10

12) Chosen One gets Mother Mercy rolling into mosh pit territory. Not one of my favorites featured here, not bad, but not something that would have provoked me to get this album.
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Score: 6/10

13) Invisible is heavy just like chosen one, but it's a better put together song, much better. This is very in the late 80's Metallica vein. Wait a minute, my computer's totally invisible...I can't write anymore!!
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Score: 8/10

14) Don't Bury Me is another break, I'll build up the excitement for you by not telling you what is said in this one.
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15) Kicking N' Screaming (Out Of The Grave) is the appropriate title for this mid-tempo rocker, because even though this isn't that fast a rocker, it sounds like it was dragged onto this album kicking and screaming! Very heavy.
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Score: 9/10

16) Mercy Killing is a faster rocker than the last few songs. The singer like on the first song sounds very much like Joe LeSte. The album is finished with a bang.
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Score: 8/10

Comments:

Mother Mercy has given us a classy metal album. Very much in the vein of the first album, so if you liked that, I have no doubt that you'll enjoy this album. It gets quite heavy towards the end, but it doesn't quite go into what you'd find on BrutalMetal.com. If a major label signed Mother Mercy, I'll bet these guys would start taking off. They're heavy enough for OzzFest, without the nu-metal feel, and there's a lot of the 80's metal crowd here.

You'll like this if you liked:

Mother Mercy
Motley Crue - Shout At The Devil
Beautiful Creatures

For more info:

http://www.mothermercy.com/

Score Key:
0: (scratches chalkboard with fingernails) ahh...I'm relieved
1-2: Weaker than weak.
3-4: Mediocre
5-6: Average
7-8: Good to Very Good
9: Great
10: Masterpiece
11+: How did I ever live without this?