Mercenary sort son nouvel album chez Century Media
Un bon disque dont on ne parle pas assez....

You have just signed the contract with Century media. How did your new label become interested in you?
Because the music works I guess!
He he, no really we have had a lot of interest from a lot of different labels but Century media are by far the label that showed us the most interest and also showed us the best offer at the end of the day. Actually we couldn't decide between two labels at the end but then we simply travelled 800 km to talk to the different guys face to face and that gave us a clear indication of which label would provide the best deal and working relations.

Your brand new cd "11 Dreams" is just released. Can you tell us more about it, the recordings sessions, the songs etc ?
The writing process was very much a jamming sort of process where we would get together for rehearsal and exchange riffs and work on them. In regards of the riffs though most or in fact everything came from Kral & Jakob Mølbjerg. We had some late nights during the writing process too. But we actually went to record the whole album before we had the vocal tracks done and here is why. After we had released Everblack we talked about doing some sort of EP including the "Kent" cover track but in the end we found it to be pretty pointless to record five tracks instead of just writing a couple more and then do a full length album which people tend to buy a lot more than just an EP. So by the time we had found out that we wanted more writing time we had booked 14 day in the studio and we agreed to put the main focus on getting the rough tracks (drums, bass, and rhythm guitars) done during that period. That's primarily why the recording process was stretched out in the way that it was. Because we used the rough tracks to write the vocals etc.
But in the end the album came out extremely powerful and very diverse in its track list. Ranging from ballad type songs to good old (melodic) death metal type material…A very interesting combination indeed. There should be something there for everybody.

What are the things you wanted to improve between your previous cds and the new one ? What are the main differences between this new cd and he others?
Well we had some line up changes during the period between the two albums and that sort of naturally changed the genre of the music in the band. Since the recording of Everblack we have had a new Drummer (Mike Park) who is really a bit more aggressive in his style and a new lead guitarist in Martin Buus who is a bit more progressive in his playing style. Also the fact that
my self and my brother contributed to a whole lot more this time around has changed the style a bit. So I don't feel that we consciously changed something. It more or less happened automatically. But the new stuff is definitely more melodic. There is less aggressive vocals that means that I get to sing a lot more. I would say that this time there is a 50 / 50% division between my self and Kral's vocals. Plus I get to do some of the aggressive vocals as well which is new for me.

You have worked with Jacob Hansen for the productions of this new release. Did you try some new elements/ideas during the recording process?
Oh yeah a lot of different ideas came up during this recording. Mostly because of the fact that a lot of the vocal work was done in the studio. Also the guitar solos was recorded twice. First with Signar (the old lead guitarist) and then by Martin. We also in fact made an entire track in the studio late at night. It's the song called "Times Without Changes". Morten wrote the music one day when he had nothing to do and then we (Morten, my self and Kral) worked out the lyrics and melodies the following day. That song turned out pretty cool I think. Also we did A LOT of vocal arrangements and rearrangements in the studio…

Niklas Sundin did draw the cover artwork of your cd. What does it represent for you ? Is there a concept behind it?
No. No real concept behind the art work. It is beautiful though isn't it?
We wanted something that we would feel fitted the title of the album and the feel of the music. We had a lot of different pictures to choose from and the end result is a mixture of some of them. Really talented that guy Sundin is. Also because of the title we wanted some thing surreal and dreamy and it certainly turned out that way I think.

Which bands would you compare the band with?
I really hate comparing any music to each other because I don't feel you can really say we sound like any body else. We have a lot of elements from the more old school heavy metal type music but that's only in regards of the melodic input into the music. And still there are Death Metal elements, progressive elements so it's probably more a question of a mixture of genres than bands. But if you twist my arm I would say that our music is a mixture of Nevermore/In Flames/Iron Maiden/Dream Theater.

Do you think that your music is innovative or brings some new idea in the metal music ?
Yeah I feel that Mercenary brings the Combo Metal to its extreme. We incorporate the melodic into the aggressive, and vice versa.

Is any members of the band involved in other projects/bands?
Not really no. We all more or less have projects going but whether or not they will amount to any thing is yet uncertain. Plus our main focus and aim right now has to be with Mercenary. Signing with a record label of this magnitude brings great responsibility and we take that very seriously.

Could you give us some information about the Danish metal Scene (Labels, bands..). Is there a real scene or just a few bands playing alone there?
The scene is getting bigger and bigger for sure. With bands like Illdisposed, Mnemic, Hatesphere, and Invocator, signing with big labels and getting a lot of touring activity outside Denmark I think the Danish venues are beginning to take the Metal scene more seriously. For instance we had Mnemic opening the main stage on this years Roskilde festival and that's pretty important I think. With us playing at the Prog Power festival in the USA last year I think that a lot of outside countries are beginning to open up their eyes for Danish Metal and that gives the bands a lot to hope for. So to sum up there is definitely an expanding scene in DK right now and that's nice.

What is, in your opinion, the best metal album released this year? the best metal album released ever ?
- This year: Mercenary 11 Dreams ;)
- Ever: I really couldn't say there are a lot of great ones but on my top five list I would place Fates Warning's Disconnected, Maiden's Life After Death, Maiden's PowerSlave, Queensryche's Promised Land and Dream Theater's Awake album. Those are probably my favourites.

Last words are yours ..
Thanks for taking the time to read this interview. We in Mercenary hope you like the new album and that we will get a chance to perform outside Denmark this or next year. Rock Hard!
Mikkel Sandager, vox Mercenary