Mercenary - Through Our Darkest Days

Published July 25 2013

*=Staff's pick	A New Dawn* Welcome To Sickness* Through Our Darkest Days Dreamstate Machine A Moment Of Clarity Beyond This Night Starving Eyes* Generation Hate Forever The Unknown* Holding On To Serenity

Genre	Melodic Heavy Metal	René Pedersen	Vocals
Tracks	10	Martin Buus	Guitar
Running time	53 Min.	Jakob Mølbjerg	Guitar
Label	NoiseArt Records	René Pedersen	Bass
Release	26 July 2013	Peter Mathiesen	Drums
Country	Denmark	Martin Buus	Keyboard
Producer	Jacob Hansen
Similar artists	Pain, Devin Townsend Project

I haven't heard much of the Danish metallers past work, so when entering this, I'm exploring places unbeknownst to me. Although Mercenary has released six records prior to this one, they haven't reached my sphere somehow. Not entirely true, but I was almost hoping for this release to fall out flat, so I wouldn't have to check out their entire back catalogue.

I hear a moderate electronic heavy metal combined with some progressive stuff played with a pulsating vibe. Without taking it to insanity and still keeping it on a reasonable level, they combine a series of styles, all within the melodic moniker nonetheless. The clean production builds the electronic appearance even stronger, although without losing the vivid parts or ruin the experience.

Most songs are striking to the edge and it would be much easier to name the songs that I don't find that appealing. The highly accurate choruses stick like flies to turd and some of the soloing is brilliant. When I have given this album a few spins, it tends to fall out slightly monotonous, because the sound is basically the same all throughout, but the album also contains a neat flow, making it sharp and it doesn't lose its grip over the listeners.

I hand out 7 Chalices to Through Our Darkest Days for the clean and precise vocal performance, its heavy riffing combined with the melodies' hitting catchiness, all incorporated with a strive to succeed further in the coming section.

See also review of: Architect Of Lies , The Hours That Remain , Everblack , 11 Dreams

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	6	7	7	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe