Mercy Ties resurfaces with Reflections and Criticisms, their first album in a decade, set for release on March 28, 2025, via The Ghost Is Clear Records.
The Seattle-formed band that once embodied a volatile fusion of screamo and hardcore, spiraling into darker and more chaotic realms, returns with renewed force.
The album’s lead single, “Love All the People,” offers an explosive two-minute glimpse into the band’s evolution. Accompanied by a visualizer, now streaming on YouTube, the track exemplifies their signature tension and release, packed with raw, biting energy.
Vocalist Andre Sanabria’s guttural roars cut deep: “Life is cheap / Disgust grows / We’re not divine, just a joke / The paradise that we call earth, destroyed by stupidity.”
Sanabria, also frontman for Ex Everything, reflects on the song’s genesis: “During a lengthy anhedonic period, I wrote ‘Love All the People’ as a conversation to myself. The big sad passed, and the words remained in a book, expunged and forgotten. When I heard the music that became this track, those same words came back to me. The lyrics are self-explanatory: we’re all on borrowed time, so enjoy it while you can.”
This honesty is the core of Reflections and Criticisms, a work that unpacks themes of human frailty, societal collapse, and existential reckoning.
Mercy Ties’ hiatus following 2015’s Proper Corruption was marked by geographic and personal shifts. Sanabria notes, “We were all facing tensions for various reasons and needed some space. Other aspects of life were pulling us away.” Guitarist Trevor Bebee shifted his focus to competitive powerlifting, while drummer Chris Pereira relocated to Europe.
It wasn’t until the isolation of the pandemic that Bebee began writing again, exploring a more deliberate creative process:
“I really fell in love with revising and layering parts on my laptop alone. I’d send them to Chris, and before we knew it, we had enough material for an album.”
The band reconvened stateside, including former guitarist Mike Hanson, to bring the album to life. Engineered by Scott Evans (Kowloon Walled City, Sumac) and Chris Common (These Arms Are Snakes, The Mars Volta), and mastered by Brad Boatright (The Armed, Necrot), the record showcases Mercy Ties’ sharpened precision and depth.
Emerging from Seattle’s fertile hardcore scene in 2010, Mercy Ties quickly gained recognition. Their chaotic sound, once described as “unsettling, unpredictable and distinctive” by Decibel Magazine, drew comparisons to Breather Resist, Converge, and Botch. Releases like Proper Corruption and tours alongside Birds In Row cemented their place in the hardcore community.
Reflections and Criticisms deepens this legacy, with tracks like “A New Hell Everyday” and “The Spectacle of the Scaffold” signaling a mature but still ferocious approach. Spanning just 11 songs, the album retains the relentless energy that defined their earlier work while leaning into themes of mortality and societal collapse.
Now scattered across Washington, Oregon, California, and Spain, Mercy Ties operates as a cohesive yet geographically fragmented force. Live bassist Millie Reda rounds out their lineup, emphasizing a forward-looking approach as they prepare to hit the stage once more.
