The Mercy Cage | en

Formed in early 1999 from the ashes of seminal alt/goth-rock band The Altar, the group recorded & released a series of semi-anonymous demo mp3s on now defunct internet music site mp3.com during 1999. the success of these early recordings online [the tracks Misericordia & Resurrection Complex topped mp3.com's Industrial, Darkwave, Oceania & New Zealand charts] quickly caught the attention of fledgling new Zealand indie label numb/benign records. numb/benign released The Mercy Cage debut album Wire in January 2000. A track from Wire, Trauma/Skin Chamber also featured on the Club Bizarre dark-end compilation Blackmarket.
The band immediately retired to the studio to begin work on a follow-up. Towards the end of these sessions, The Mercy Cage signed a deal with NZ label Mediatrix, home to FEARvLOATHINC, Jordan Reyne & Shemsu Hor among others. 18 months in the making, Rust: A Fiction:stories from the black room was released in late 2001. a concept album melding a number of musical styles into a cohesive package, the CD has gone on to become the best selling release in the labels history. Rust: A Fiction was followed by two remix singles for the songs Needle Marks (& Scars) & the club hit "M",& an E.P containing reworkings of unreleased tracks from the Rust:A Fiction sessions entitled Valium:Toxicity v2.0.
augmented with guitars, acoustic drums & extra synthesis, The Mercy Cage became a live entity in 2002. a tour with labelmates N.U.T.E followed, & incendiary headlining performances at New Zealand's two biggest dark-end festivals, Vampyre 2003 & Darkness Gathering IV established The Mercy Cage as one of the premier live draws on the underground circuit.
2003 also saw the widespread availability of Rust:A Fiction internationally, with Metropolis online, The DSBP (U.S.A) & G.U.P (Australia) picking up the album for international distribution. also in 2003, the release of CDs by Diverje, Krushed Opiates, Project Auryn, N.U.T.E & Abney Park all containing remixes by The Mercy Cage.
After extensive remodelling of The Mercy Cage's own Virus Event Theatre Labs studios in early 2003, the band commenced work on their 3rd album. tentatively entitled Scree:Transmissions, it's a conceptual affair on "communication, the media, sex, death & the politics of identity". .