Review: Mercury Teeth

Chaotic doesn’t even begin to cover Mercury Teeth, but that’s exactly where the appeal lies. This is music that lives on the edge of collapse, daring itself to fall apart-and then grinning as it pulls everything back together at the last possible second.

First up, Rehmeyer’s Hollow (For the Birds Demos) is a blast of punk/hardcore fusion chaos that feels like it’s constantly on the verge of derailment. Offbeat rhythms, shouted sections and jagged shifts threaten total meltdown, yet somehow Mercury Teeth keep dragging the song back from the brink. The dual vocals are a huge part of what makes this track so addictive-clashing, colliding and complementing each other in equal measure. It’s aggressive, pounding and utterly authentic, with a strange beauty hidden inside the noise. There are flashes of Faith No More at their most unhinged, but filtered through a raw, punk-first mindset. This thing rockets along on a dense, layered wall of sound that’s punk in attitude but far more adventurous musically.

Chutes flips the script completely. A lo-fi, almost militaristic marching intro lulls you into a false sense of order before the near-spoken-word vocal slips in, perfectly misaligned with the backing track. It’s unsettling in the best way. Think The Melvins colliding head-on with Mr Bungle-slightly unbalanced, slightly unhinged and all the better for it. The layers and chaos here demand multiple listens just to begin unpacking what’s going on. If your idea of heaven involves records that sound like they could’ve been tracked in the same sweaty session as Nirvana’s Incesticide, then congratulations-you may have just found your new obsession.

Finally, Fight or Flight delivers yet another curveball. It teases you with what feels like the opening of a Chili Peppers ballad before promptly detonating into Mercury Teeth’s trademark madness. This one absolutely needs headphones to fully appreciate the sheer density of ideas flying past. Just when the chaos threatens to overwhelm, scuzzy guitars swoop in to restore a warped sense of order-only for everything to unravel again moments later.

These tracks prove Mercury Teeth aren’t interested in comfort zones, genres or playing it safe. They thrive in tension, imbalance and controlled destruction, creating music that challenges as much as it rewards.

This isn’t chaos for chaos’ sake-
it’s Mercury Teeth biting down hard on the edge… and refusing to let go.