Merciless Death

History

Founded by Dan Holder and Andy Torres in March 2003, Merciless Death was soon joined by Torres's brother Cesar on drums and Mike Griego on guitars in September 2003. Mike eventually quit due to personal differences.

In an interview with Dan Holder in 2007 and available here, Dan said it all began when he met Andy during their sophomore or junior year in high school. They had a class together and Dan had just received a leather jacket for his birthday and Andy took the opportunity to say “hey, nice jacket man”. After that they started hanging out and slowly started the band. Before Dan met Andy and Cesar he wrote music and lyrics and saved them because he knew that one day he would meet someone who shared the same desire he had and that happened when he met them. Merciless Death played their first show on March 24, 2004 at the Chicago Bar in Santa Clarita, California.

After recording a self released Demo, Annihilate the Masses, and self released album Evil in the Night, the band soon signed to Heavy Artillery Records and re-released their debut album Evil in the Night with a new layout and cover artwork by Ed Repka (Evildead, Megadeth, Nuclear Assault, Toxik, Venom). Merciless Death appears on the Speed Kills…Again compilation with Avenger of Blood, Enforcer, Hatred, Toxic Holocaust, and Warbringer. They toured the US in August and September 2007 to promote the critically acclaimed re-release of Evil in the Night and supported At War in October 2007.

Some have guessed that the name "Merciless Death" comes from the song Merciless Death by Dark Angel. However, in an interview with Andy Torres in 2007 and available here, Andy said the band's name originated from a conversation with Dan Holder in which Dan came up with a possible name for the band “Merciless Onslaught” and Andy asked him about replacing the word 'Onslaught' with 'Death'. From that point on they called themselves “Merciless Death”.

Discography

Contributed tracks to

Interviews

Newspaper articles