Band

Mercenary

Biografie

Bio 2004:

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...

Bio 2002:

Having been around since 1991 and now kicking it harder than ever, Mercenary is one of Denmark´s most persistent metal acts.
After the release of their debut CD "First Breath" from 1998, the band released the internationally acclaimed follow-up CD "Everblack" in 2002 through Hammerheart Records.

Despite dominating trends of either playing extreme metal, with all the familiar clichés of the black/deathmetal scene, or trying to write MTV-friendly NU-metal like Korn and Limp Bizkit, Mercenary sticks to playing their very own blend of metal which is intensely dark and melancholic, yet in-your-face, aggressive and heavy as hell.

Their new material displays much more skilled and deliberate songwriting than ever seen before in the bands career, and while keeping the heavy groovy rhythms and the melodic guitar parts, the songs have been cut down in complexity to give place to more essential, purer and focused forms of expression.

What the new songs might have lost in technical complexity and inspirational diversity, they have definitely gained in atmospheric intensity and musical honesty. With the release of "Everblack" the future is looking blacker than ever...