New York, NY (Top40 Charts) While they're no strangers to the Southern California independent music scene, hardcore foursome Feed the Beast are poised to introduce themselves to more regional, national and international stages and speakers with their latest album, Mercy, the band's debut for Futureless.
Feed the Beast's history has been cultivated via years of consistently releasing recordings and fortifying a considerable presence across venues in their western Los Angeles and SantaMonica locales. Mercy signals their return from a hiatus with a reshuffled roster and new record label affiliation in tow. The group has seized the opportunity to not only elevate its presence, but also expand its latitude of sonic expression, melding the time-tested heaviness with occasions for experimentation and engaging in novel musical niches.
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Nick Jett (of Terror) in under a week, Mercy is a compendium of punishing yet precise heavy cuts, deftly interspersed with melody, space, dynamics and syncopated rhythms. Original members James Hutchinson (vocals) and Nicholas Garcia (guitar) penned Mercy across a span of a few months with former Feed the Beast members Tye Trujillo (bass) and Patrick Chavez (drums).
"Nick's the man," says Garcia of Mercy's producer. "He's very efficient and it still blows my mind that we tracked seven songs in three or four days. It's very cool to get to work with someone who is very professional."
Feed the Beast's origins began as high school friends who connected through their love of music. "It was a very small school, which was even funnier how we were all into the same music," says Garcia. "It was just kind of a coincidence."
This coincidental connection eventually found the group putting their musical minds to work as Feed the Beast began composing its material just before the COVID era struck in early 2020. After the pause, Feed the Beast soon booked themselves a busy self-release schedule with a handful of singles, the Vengeance album in 2022, and 2023's EP, Silhouettes.
With Trujillo and Chavez leaving to focus on other projects (Trujillo plays in Suicidal Tendencies, filling his father Robert's spot that became available when he joined Metallica, while Chavez plays with OTTTO), Hutchinson and Garcia retooled the lineup, recruiting new band members Julian Lincona (bass) and Billy Greenwood (drums) to support Mercy, which is slated for a release on Futureless in May 2025.
Mercy's first single is "Tombs Underneath the Tombs," of which Hutchinson says is about "being content with and even embracing hell, which is a fate worse than hell itself. It takes on the perspective of an incredibly narcissistic individual who believes they are smarter and stronger than everyone, including creation itself." Additional singles from Mercy include "Exorcism" (which Hutchinson describes as "the most hopeful song of the first four singles") and "Unjustified."
Stream the single "Tombs Underneath The Tombs" here:
The Mercy cover art is a continuance of the three-headed dog theme that has appeared on prior Feed the Beast releases "Vengeance" and "Sanctuary."
"With the Feed the Beast name, we always thought that having some sort of mascot would be pretty cool, like Eddie with Iron Maiden," says Garcia. "We just like the darker theme to it, too, as that represents the music best."
And what's behind the title, Mercy, and how does it encapsulate the band's sophomore album? Hutchinson explains that while the theme of Mercy is never explicitly mentioned in any of the songs, it serves as the unifying thread that ties the entire record together. "In 'Tombs Underneath the Tombs,' every cynical lyric acts as a subconscious effort to mask this yearning, while 'Exorcism' lays it bare in a moment of desperation—its haunting declaration, 'God is not listening,' becoming a raw plea for divine mercy in the absence of salvation. Each song, in its own way, wrestles with this longing, making Mercy the album's unspoken yet ever-present force."
As the reinvigorated Feed the Beast prepare for their biggest launch yet, Hutchinson and Garcia are quick to note that this is not merely a replication of the band's affairs over the past several years, but rather it is clearly a new era for the ensemble—and one to be embraced by seasoned fans and fresh faces alike.
"While some of the tracks on this record are reminiscent of our earliest songs, the heavier instrumentals and deeper lyrical themes demonstrate how far we will go to push ourselves creatively," says Hutchinson. "After spending almost a year on hiatus, we can proudly say that Feed the Beast is back and our journey as a band is only just beginning."
Pre-order the album 'Mercy' here: https://feedthebeastla.bandcamp.com/album/mercy
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