Mercury Rain
St. Matthieu
Formed in 1994 by young veterans of the Bristol music scene, Mercury Rain started life unpromisingly as three guys who 'just wanted to play metal'. Ex-Crisis bassist Jon Hoare and bandmate and drummer Andy Pester had hooked up with guitarist Dion Smith, but Mercury Rain lacked both a singer and a direction until Sonia Porzier gave them both. Responding to a 'vocalist wanted' advert she brought to the band both a fabulous voice and a copy of Nightwish's second album 'Oceanborn'. At this time the metal female voices genre was still pretty much in its infancy, but Sonia's arrival not only filled the void behind the mike stand but also set them on the path to being possibly the best-known British band of the genre. 'St Matthieu' showcases the best of the genre. With its intro 'Tales From Beyond' sung in French, 'St Matthieu' features a brace of songs which thunder along, with furious riffs underpinning lush orchestration and Sonia's vocals floating above the metal furore. The songs are cleverly written so as not to reveal themselves too early, and even the shorter material twists and turns like the Minotaur's labyrinth. The highlight is undoubtedly the ten-minute title track, while 'Chimaera' is as close to a traditional neck-wrenching metal workout as you can get and the uncompromising 'The Messenger' features guest growls from Chris Neighbour, frontman from Weston-super-Mare's face-shredding Four Way Kill. This compilation features the album in its entirety, augmented by three cuts from previous album 'Dark Waters' ('The City Of Ys', 'Bride Of the Dark' and 'The Boat Of The Dead') and 'Incubus' and 'Amber Reflections' from the band's extremely rare 'Where Angels Fear' debut. With all tracks recently remastered, a lengthy interview with Jon and Sonia and previously unpublished photos, 'St Matthieu - Remastered & Reborn' emphasises what an exciting and ground-breaking album this was for the UK metal female voices genre.