The four-piece extreme metal outfit Merciless Reign have stamped and pounded their turf, making a name and following in the Akron/Cleveland area building a following among headbanging devotees with customized noise, volume and wreckage.
Their Reign began in 2011, releasing a three-song demo and digital release of their first full-length 2014’s, Catharsis Through Chaos. They’ve shared stages with Nile, Kataklysm, Skeletonwitch, Jungle Rot, Macabre, Vital Remains, Rings of Saturn, and Hellwitch. They’re spending March/April in the studio finishing second offering Haunting The Aftermath with a string of scattered live dates coming.
Their concentration has been on writing and recording, though their live shows are well known in the Akron/Cleveland area playing The Foundry, Agora and Outpost.
The sound northern Ohio knows and Dayton will hear Friday at Blind Bobs comes from a wide range of bands and era’s, mixed together for prime assault. Guitarist, vocalist Bill Paxton’s influenced by the Swedish death metal of Entrails and Vomitory with Exhumed as a huge influence along with Belphegor and Nile. Guitarist Dave Almedinger also shares a Swedish metal love along with Dying Fetus and Vader with a healthy and heavy love of hardcore music. Bassist Arn Argenio came from the ‘80s with metal gods Iron Maiden and Judas Priest with Sodom, Kreator and anything extreme, mean and nasty.
March 2 will be their first trip to Blind Bobs and first time playing with the Dayton thrash, black metal, prog trio of, Flesh Warfare, Well of Night and Zuel. It’s also the first show promoted under the Cincinnati based Transplant Productions banner.
Paxton says the band’s name came from a brainstorm of individualism, “Basically I was just sitting at home trying to think of a band name. I had a bunch of ideas. Then I just kinda thought; what was I trying to say with the music? Merciless Reign came from the idea of, I’m gonna live my life the way I want to as long as I’m not doing anything wrong. So it’s a Merciless Reign in my own life.”
On their history, Paxton says, “There was a download we did in 2012 that featured three songs, “Flames of Determination,” “No Remorse” and “Seventeen Years of Hatred” that ended up on the Catharsis Through Chaos CD. There was a demo before Catharsis came out. We took two songs and made a promo CD for a show in Chicago. It’s listed as a release but it was just a promo thing.”
Their sound ranges from slow and doomy to black metal and thrash. If it sounds too much like one thing, they’ll change it up. “There’s a song on the CD we’re recording now in the style of Swedish death metal,” Paxton says. “That song in particular I purposely wanted to be in that style. We pretty much just write without setting boundaries.”
On Haunting’s progress, drummer Christian Krucker says drums are finished, “We’re gonna listen to the edits and do a couple tracks on each song blending them together. It sounds fantastic. Our producer at Track Six Recordings, Brandon Youngs, is doing a hell of a job.”
Haunting the Aftermath will be 11 tracks, “90 percent of the songs from Haunting will be played at Blind Bobs,” Krucker informs. “We get tired of playing the old stuff. We’re playing one old song, maybe two. It’s kind of our staple called Thrash, Fuck, Kill. It was written on New Year’s Eve, at midnight four years ago.”
“That song was written coming into 2013,” Paxton says. “Initially it was a throwaway. I showed it to our previous lead guitarist and bass player and they liked it. We ran with it, kinda like a fun party song.”
It was their homage to all the thrash metal giants out there.
A CD release party’s in the making Krucker says, but they haven’t figured out logistics of where or who they’re playing with yet. “Each song on Haunting has its own story and the overall theme is exposing the ugly nature of mankind and how current events can make people, be, not so nice, to each other. But it doesn’t really take a stance either way,” Paxton says.
Their shows with Vital Remains and Nile were awesome with two of their largest, well received audiences to date. Being 40 minutes away, Cleveland’s their adopted hometown.
Krucker says plans for 2018 are finishing the album by April and promoting. Paxton says they’re converting a shuttle bus for extended weekend tours in the spring.
They’ve played three-day weekends in Chicago and Wisconsin with New York and South Carolina on the prospective GPS. So far Columbus is also unplayed territory.
“We’re playing in Indiana the night after the Dayton show,” Paxton says, “Just outside of Fort Wayne. When the opportunity arises, they want to come back and play other venues in Dayton.
The current lineup has been together since June 2017 and have developed a loyal area following.
Argenio’s first show was the Agora with a great reception, “Everyone in Cleveland knows who Merciless Reign is. I was a fan before I joined. The music’s different in the Cleveland scene. I know a lot of people that dig the band and know what they’re about.”
The Akron/Cleveland scene is thriving with the most metal bands per capita, they say. The variety’s there, from extreme to gore metal, with great places that put on great shows with a nice niche. A lot of people just go to metal shows, unconcerned with sub-genre.
They started in November 2011 with ties back to high school. With very humble beginnings and meager equipment they used what they had and made it work, progressing to modern day.
They have a show coming up at The Empire in Akron, March 10. Haunting The Aftermath’s their best work yet, they insist, and will blast the ears off anyone that takes interest or in audible radius.
Images courtesy of Malissa Argenio
