The Belgian metal act After All was, until now, totally unfamiliar to me, even though "Mercury Rising" is already the fourth full length album of this quintet. Where to start? Well, the music is very diverse but After All is above all a heavy metal band. The music reminds strongly of the metal played in the eighties with some gothic and more modern influences. The strongest part of this album is the variety; from very slow and melancholic to fast and furious heavy metal which makes this album sometimes difficult to listen to. It takes awhile before you really get into the songs and “Mercury Rising” has to really grow on you. The production of this album (done by Harris Johns of Kraetor and Voivoid fame) reminds of the eighties too, it is quite flat and lacks balls but the sound is overall decent.

The only real problem I have with this album are Piet Focroul’s vocals. No matter how often I listen to this CD I just can’t get used to him. They have a little bit of a whining edge to them and once in awhile I think he tries to sound too theatrical. "Mercury Rising" is a very diverse album that once in a while strongly reminds of Anathema. Listen for instance to “Last Day Of Winter” and you’ll know what I mean. The album also contains two bonus videos, “Beneath The Flesh” and “For Us Immortals” and cover art by Kris Verwimp, although I have seen better artwork from Kris.