Mercenary - Everblack

*=Staff's pick	Intro Everblack* Seize the Night* Screaming from the Heavens Dead.com Darkspeed Bloodrush* A Darker Shade of Black* Bulletblues Rescue Me Alliance*

Genre	Death Metal	Mikkel/Kral	Vocals
Tracks	11	Jakob	Guitar
Runningtime	54 Min.	Signar	Guitar
Label	Hammerheart Records	Kral	Bass
Release	11 March 2002	Mike	Drums
Country	Denmark	Morten	Keyboards
Similar artists	Solar Dawn, Gardenian, Nevermore

I think I dare announce this as the best death metal releaase from Denmark so far! Especially since Denmark hasn't exactly made itself famous for an abundant amount of really good metalbands earlier, and all of a sudden this pops up as from nowhere and almost knocks me flat to the floor, and makes this album the nicest surprise and freshest breeze of the death metalscene of the past years.

Mercenary has been around for an odd 8 years in the scene, but hasn't got much attention prior to this, but now they are all worth the acknowledgement they can get. This is really, really fantastic good, and I can't make myself naming even one weak song on this album. The guitarsound on this album has quite a bit of "Sunlight Studio" over it, and then especially around the time of Grave and Entombed's glory days, but it is compact, clear and sounds fresh and crisp, and really heavy and the riffs that comes with that are really catchy - but without being especially complicated and innovative. This is based on simple, but yet groovy riffs. I've said it before, and I say it once agan: Simplicity is (often) supreme.

The vocalparts are a chapter for itself, and are done with brilliance by Mikkel and Kral, and they mix one of the best death metal voices I have heard with clear, normal vocals and the result of that is just excellent, and sometimes with a touch of growls in the areas of Six Feet Under, Cannible Corpse even - but this is music lightyears beyond that quality. Songs like the openers Everblack and Seize the Night, and the closer Alliance are nothing less than masterpieces and a a perfect example of harmonies, melodies and simply put: very heavy metal at it's best. And the time in between these songs are filled in the best way possible, and the quality is maintained into the last second.

Even though Mercenary's main focus lie on death metal, you can hear more than one part on this cd which is flirting with the heavier side of power metal, and the hooks, riffs and leads all melt together in a delightful mixture. The choruses, for example ,are very melodic and almost catchy from time to time and make a big contribution to the whole picture of this little goldnugget of metalalbums the past years. The tempo is kind of modest and midtempo(but with a great flow)throughout the album with plenty of elements of more driven parts with double bassdrums and more slower bits, but with atmosphere instead.

Mercenary has in livereviews been compared to bands such as Fear Factory and Machine Head, and that might very well be the case since they sure have the energy and the amount of "metal" it takes to pull such a thing off and still be able to hold your head high - but the music itself isn't very much comparable to that area I might add - this is more way more melodic and wellplayed. I guess witnessing a concert with this band would be a very pleasant experience. This is very good, and I hope these guys will continue to deliver this kind of quality metal for some years to come, and this should be very well accepted worldwide from this point forward, cause this must be considered a major breakthrough. Congratulations, guys.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9	10	8

Summary
8,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy