Mercenary have led a turbulent life since a couple of guys from Aalborg picked up guitars and decided to play heavy metal in the early 1990’s. With as many lineup changes as Guns N’ Roses (well, almost) and incredibly not one original member remaining, the only consistent aspect of Mercenary is that they rock!

After a couple of semi-successful albums Mercenary hit the roof with the widely praised album ‘The Hours That Remain’ in 2006. Critics and fans loved it and the album earned Mercenary a Danish Metal Award for ‘Best Album of the Year’. This year Mercenary tries to follow up on the success with ‘Architect Of Lies’.

Is it as good as its predecessor then? Well, the jury is still out on that one, but it’s a rather pointless discussion similar to debating whether ‘Kill Bill Vol. I’ is superior to ‘Kill Bill Vol 2’. As entertaining that discussion may be, at the end of the day they are both pretty good movies. Just as both ‘The Hours That Remain’ and ‘Architect Of Lies’ are two of the better metal albums Denmark has to offer.

What makes ‘Architect Of Lies’ stand out on an already great Danish metal scene is first and foremost the vocal collaboration between bassist René Pedersen (replacing former bassist/vocalist Henrik “Kral” Andersen) and frontman Mikkel Sandager. Pedersen both look and sound like pure evil and growls like there’s no tomorrow, while Sandager screams and sings with clean, crisp and often astonishing high pitched vocals that could make Bruce Dickinson soil himself.

That - combined with Mercenarys complex song structures, grueling guitars and cool combinations of catchy and menacing, dark and melodic – makes them well worth a listen.

Genre: Metal/Progressive/Death metal
Who: Mercenary
Album: Architect Of Lies
Label: Century
Year: 2008
Country: Denmark
Language: English
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Recommended tracks:
Bloodsong – Embrace The Nothing – Death Connection – Execution Style