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Mercenary: Demos Collection 12” (Beach Impediment Records) Beach Impediment Records brings us the collected works of Mercenary, an Atlanta hardcore band that existed briefly—according to the liner notes, not much more than a year—around 2013 and 2014. I knew Mercenary’s members from their previous bands (including Bukkake Boys, who released a couple of records on Sorry State) and the hardcore scene in the Southern US is small and pretty tight-knit, but even for someone like me who was paying attention, Mercenary felt like a blip on the radar, bubbling up and fizzling far too quickly. This collection adjusts my perspective, making me realize what a fully formed and powerful band Mercenary was. Listening to this collection in the year 2022, I’m struck by how ahead of their time Mercenary sounded. This sound—frantic and complex, Totalitär-style riffing with some extra Shitlickers / Cimex heft—is all over the place in today’s punk scene, and if you’re into bands like Public Acid, Scarecrow, and Extended Hell (guitarist Jesse’s band after Mercenary), you’re gonna love this. The LP collects Mercenary’s 2013 demo, their track from Beach Impediment’s Hardcore Gimme Some More compilation, and five songs from an aborted LP session. The 2013 demo sounds even better to me now than it did at the time. Vicious hardcore with some progressive, squealy noise bits that are a bit like what Public Acid has included on their recordings. However, the aborted LP tracks (which were released on cassette under the title Atlanta’s Burning) are the real treat here. These tracks strip away the noise elements and the riffs get more focused, more complex, and even meaner. It’s fucking killer. Mercenary’s vocalist Ruby (whom you almost certainly know if you were involved in the east coast DIY hardcore scene in the late 00s and 2010s) passed away in 2021, making this LP special for those of us who were lucky enough to know him. (The inserts feature a bunch of photos that make me laugh and cry at the same time.) Regardless of your personal connection with the band, this reissue makes a convincing case for Mercenary as one of the most underrated hardcore bands of the 2010s.