Mercenary - The Hours That Remain

*=Staff's pick	Redefine Me* Year Of The Plague My World Is Ending* This Eternal Instant Lost Reality Soul Decision* Simplicity Demand Obscure Indiscretion My Secret Window The Hours That Remain

Genre	Progressive Thrash Metal	Mikkel Sandager	Vocals
Tracks	10	Martin Buus	Guitar
Runningtime	62 Min.	Jakob Mjölberg	Guitar
Label	Century Media	René Pedersen	Bass
Release	23 Aug. 2006	Mike Park	Drums
Country	Denmark	Morten Sandager	Keyboards
Similar artists	Nevermore, Evergrey, Pathos, Communic

The danish dynamite in the shape of The Hours That Remain from Mercenary comes loaded with an album full of explosive material. Since their last album 11 Dreams a change has been made in their line-up as Kral has left the band and been replaced with René Pedersen as the new bass player. The Hours That Remain is the fourth full-length album from these danes and the album also includes guest vocal appearances by Soilwork's Björn "Speed" Strid and Heaven Shall Burn's Marcus Bischoff.

Mercenary is a band that is in constant evolution, for each album they go further and further away from the melodic thrash and death simpler style. The fact that their sound still is close to Nevermore, just as the situation was with 11 Dreams, has not changed though but yet Mercenary defines their own sound more and more as time goes. That the band is in constant evolution shows by the fact that Mikkel Sandager sings even better now and that the band plays even better and that The Hours That Remain contains even more detailed arrangements. Their progressive thrash is high on emotion and the way that they combine aggression with beautiful emotional melodic parts is still astonishing.

The Hours That Remain picks more or less up where 11 Dreams left us, they strive for a cleaner and more progressive sound as the references to death becomes lesser and lesser. After Kral has left the band the room for growls has been noticeable decreased to my disappointment, the interaction between his harsh vocals and the smoother and greatly varied vocals from Mikkel Sandager was one thing that really put Mercenary above other bands. Even though the guest appearances as mentioned earlier add a bit of what I miss, it is still a dimension that has been somewhat lost.

All things are kept in perfect balance (apart from the growl bits) and the band never gets carried away in any sense but keep the solos and the progressive elements in check to maintain a good balance. Compared with 11 Dreams this album feels like a step down and sometimes the album looses some of its momentum, but still their music is dynamic and sparkling. It could also be worth mentioning that producer Jacob Hansen handles the bass duties on the album.

See also review of: Through Our Darkest Days , Architect Of Lies , Everblack , 11 Dreams

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	10	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Thomas