Merciless

Utterly wasting a name that would be much better used by some doomy goth band with a sexy-vampiress lead singer, Most Precious Blood have thus far been a fairly close to useless metalcore band with a taste for ooh-aren't-we-shocking lyrical and visual provocation. Merciless features a step up in terms of presentation and reach, with symphonic string sections and ambient synths providing much-needed interludes between the tiresome slogs of the songs proper. Otherwise, it's just more of the dead boring same, with singer Rob Fusco's preachy lyrics sitting inert above Justin Brannan and Rachel Rosen's hardcore-by-numbers guitars. Better, then, but still not anywhere near good. Initial copies come with a live DVD and -- because no one has ever thought of this before -- 83 separate untitled bonus tracks, the most interesting of which are silent.