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Emerging from the nineties as a mid-pace melodic death-thrash fourpiece, centered around songwriters Kral (bass/vocals) and Jakob (guitars), 2002 saw Mercenary taking a giant leap forward with the release of the album "Everblack". Recruiting additional heavymetal-style singer Mikkel Sandager and his brother Morten on keys changed the band's sound drastically towards a new and rather unusual combination of melody and aggression.
Mercenary gradually evolved their sound into a fusion of diverse inspirations ranging from progressive and 'classic' metal to (Swedish) melodic deathmetal.
Balancing memorable atmospheric passages and choruses, with equal amounts of drive and aggression, the band took a definite turn towards focusing on songwriting rather than riffing. This "trademark" mixture earned the band wide attention and praise, along with appearances at festivals as diverse as ProgPower USA and the Norwegian Inferno Festival.
After releasing "Everblack", Mercenary recruited drummer Mike Park and leadguitarist Martin Buus, whose skills can be heard in the added energy on Mercenary's new release "11 Dreams", produced by Jacob Hansen.
Following up on the band's new-found diversity, the new material draws upon the members' widely different inspirations and personal musical backgrounds. The mixture of these individual different approaches into an integrated whole, displays the band's development as songwriters and defines the uniqueness of Mercenary's sound.
The new album adds originally arranged multi-layered vocals and intricate ideas to simple but catchy song-structures, while delivering by far the band's most aggressive and powerful expression and production yet.
By weaving a touch of almost symphonic Scandinavian melancholy into their particular blend of the atmospheric with the aggressive Mercenary has, however, taken their trademark expression even further... |
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