Shane’s Rock Challenge: BULLET – 1983 – No Mercy

Shane’s Music Challenge: BULLET – 1983 – No Mercy
7.5/10

With No Mercy this German four piece delivered a masterclass in early 80’s Eurometal.

Start with the ridiculously OTT cover: a hot, naked smurfette (well, she is blue!?!) draped with a heavy chain, a chastity padlock in front of her ladybits, while a shadow of the band performing in projected onto a rock behind her. Ludicrous and completely bonkers, it may seem pretty sexist now but this was par for the course back in the days of spandex and leather studded wristbands and bullet belts.

Musically it is perhaps surprising how much this heavy metal just sounds like barroom boogie – juiced up to eleven and fed on a diet of steroids – but boogie none-the-less.

Lyrically No Mercy is all about booze, birds, rocking and… well, that’s it, really!

Opener Look Out sets the pace – a barnstorming, leather-clad, Teutonic rocker. I Sold My Soul To Rock n’ Roll is a great, melodic and musky scream-out to metal, while Drunken Nights’ stop-start riff is another winner, this one leaving you smell the stale whiskey of a wild night on the town.

Top marks go to Down By The Neon Lights, a spot-on exercise in heavy rock that perfectly marries a punchy, catchy riff with a flirty, chant-along lyric that hasn’t left my head since I first heard it thirty years ago.

By Shane Pinnegar

 

Category: Shane's Rock Challenge