Sweet Cobra

To maximize a cliché, Chicago, IL's Sweet Cobra have always had the subtlety of the proverbial bull in a China shop. Uniting emotionally weighty subject matter with aspects of groove metal, hardcore and even some sprawling experimental rock, every second of a Sweet Cobra album boasts an inescapable air of early Coliseum colliding with their Black Sabbath influence while Sick of it All and Mastodon throw in two cents apiece. Still, never before have those elements come together so perfectly, infectiously and excitingly as on Mercy. Each monolithic riff forces itself into the conscious, propelled by oscillating beats. Hammering the point home, gruff, don't-fuck-with-me vocals establish a sense of awe, melancholy and rawness that doesn't flow so much as rumble along with the delicateness and trepidation of a division of Sherman tanks. Yet there we are, waving them in our direction and adoring the sound of crunching bones.