Review by Paul Monkhouse for MPM
2021 could well be the year when rising stars Mercutio reach the outer limits of the stratosphere and this new four track EP is the ultimate launch pad for that fast-moving trajectory.
The London outfit have been making themselves heard with their own brand of widescreen modern rock that tips its hat to some of stadium filling acts that they’re destined to share stages with very shortly.
Kicking off with the frantic, big wall of sound of ‘Chaos Is King’ things move at a breakneck speed, ex Spandau Ballet frontman Ross William Wild tackling the rush of lyrics with aplomb and his smoothly powerful voice like a finely tuned supercar, capable of going from a whisper to a roar in lightning speed. ‘Alex’ follows in a slightly more restrained but equally impressive way.
Sounding something out of the same stable as Muse, ‘Terraferma’ is a stadium filling slab of ambitious space rock that artfully blends big futuristic guitar sounds with keyboards to great effect, exploding like a huge firework display with its sound and light.
Ending on a massive high, ‘The Ghost That Is You’ is a retooling of an earlier version, this time adding the vocals of Jodie Steel and boosting the wattage up to maximum overdrive. Gloriously building from its quiet building, it hits the chorus and just flies from there.
Beautifully weaving in and out of each other, the music and Wild and Steel’s voices are utterly irresistible and the force incredible.
By the time you reach the grungy, heavy duty riffing at the end any thought of resistance has been totally banished, the job well and truly done.
Wild’s voice, Fabio Stafieri’s guitars and Francesco Lucidi’s drums were meant for each other and together, as Mercutio, they were made for bestriding the planet like musical colossus. 2021 cannot come soon enough.
