Death.FM - Mercenary

#	Track Listing	Length	Played
01	Intro Mercenary	0:32	15
02	Everblack Mercenary	4:50	23
03	Seize The Night Mercenary	6:39	24
04	Screaming From The Heavens Mercenary	6:56	19
05	Dead.Com Mercenary	5:43	21
06	Darkspeed Mercenary	4:51	24
07	Bloodrush Mercenary	6:31	14
08	A Darker Shade Of Black Mercenary	5:03	20
09	Bulletblues Mercenary	2:49	8
10	Rescue Me Mercenary	5:05	10
11	Alliance Mercenary	4:46	23

Hint: Hover over buttons and album/artist name next to the cover for more info.

Reviewers Rating

1 review done for this album.

Brilliant atmospheric melodeath

By:	Eskidead
Date:	25 Jun 2011
Rating:

After releasing their debut First Breath in 1998, Danish Mercenary went through some major changes when they released this gem 4 years later.
New and improved sound, going from 4 to 6 man aboard, which can be an advantage if you know how to make the most use of everyone's potential. With the addition of the Sandager brothers (Mikkel on clean vox, Morten on keys) Mercenary found themselves with a unique opportunity to increase their musical spectrum a lot.

The intro may give one the impression that this is a concept album entirely based on the events from September 11th 2001. This is only partly true, as some of the titles may be hints (Bloodrush, Bulletblues, Alliance), but in the end it will always be a question of interpretation.

Eventhough Mercenary already played melodic death metal on First Breath with added atmospheric passages and clean vocales here and there, the music on Everblack just has a much more natural flow in my opinion. The title track sets the album off with a blast, yet it doesn't give the full picture of the album as all songs here are very diverse. Calling Seize The Night a "classic" Mercenary song is an understatement. It is one of the best examples of how to take the term melodeath to a whole new level. Dark death metal riffing during verses, slightly more melodic at the pre-choruses and at the chorus it just explodes into a melodic and atmospheric universe. Next up is the ballad Screaming From The Heavens, THE highlight of the entire album. Magnificently written, and in my opinion the best ballad any Danish band has ever made.
The contrast between this and the next song Dead.com is just like being taken down to the darkest burning pits of Hell where fury, rage and brutality dominate. And putting these two songs right next to each other shows the wide range of melodeath that Mercenary can play, without letting anything seem misplaced.
Bloodrush is another of those songs that sticks to your brain quickly with its thrasy riffs and melodic chorus, else the swinging Bulletblues will.

There aren't many downsides to this album, one of the few is that Signar repeats some solos and leads several times throughout the album, which is a shame since he shows in the above-mentioned Screaming From The Heavens what he really is capable of.

That doesn't really take anything away from the fact that Everblack is a phenomenal accomplishment. It earned Mercenary much recognition and praise; this would be multiplied tenfold 2½ years later when 11 Dreams was releaed.

PS. Death.fm doesn't have the re-mastered version of Everblack, as it contains a bonus song called Nothing's What It Seems, a semi-soft ballad.

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