Power of Metal.dk Review

 
Mercenary
Through Our Darkest Days
Rating
Style: Melodic Death Metal
Release date: 29 July, 2013
Playing time: 51:41
 

I was a little disappointed with their 2011 album 'Metamorphosis', it sounded a little less heavy and the melodies were a little less contagious in my humble opinion. On this new album I conclude that the band took a step back again, but in this case it's a positive change.

The melodic and clean singing parts are better and the grunts by René Pederson are more varied. Listen for example to the beautiful clean refrain in the heavy track "Welcome the Sickness"; this is how it should be done. Mercenary was the best in combining melodic clean refrains with grunts, their  album "11 Dreams" is the blue print for that and sometimes you here similarities with that record and that is a very positive point. "Welcome the Sickness", with nice thrash riffs, "Through Our Darkest Days", "Generation Hate" and "Holding On to Serenity" are all examples.

There are tracks that are not quite as strong, like the rather modern sounding song "A Moment of Clarity", but in general the band wrote songs with better melodies. Like the album title already states, their darkest days are over, the new album is a step ahead and perhaps their next album will even top "11 Dreams"?


Tracklist
01. A New Dawn
02. Welcome the Sickness
03. Through Our Darkest Days
04. Dreamstate Machine
05. A Moment of Clarity
06. Beyond This Night
07. Starving Eyes
08. Generation Hate
09. Forever the Unknown
10. Holding On to Serenity
Label: Noise Art Records
Distribution: Target (Denmark)
Reviewed by: Reinier de Vries
Date: 30 July, 2013
Website: www.mercenary.dk