Architect of Lies

I had heard this band way back during my initial melodeath phase but somehow they just got lost in the mix. Back then I had only heard this album and their previous one The Hours That Remain. I had seen their genre description as Melodic Death/Power Metal and not being a fan a power metal back in the day, I promptly chose to ignore them.Yeah I know, that was quite the idiotic move on my part, but thankfully it's never too late.

One thing that immediately leaps out at you is the fact that these guys have a very strong and unique grasp/sense of melody overall. What I mean by that is the fact that where other bands would use only the vocals or the guitars during each song section, these guys use both vocals and the guitar equally to carry the music forward into more aggressive territory only to fall back into a new melody. It's hard to put it exactly in words, but the approach sounds refreshingly unique. Plus the clean vocals are the powerful power metal vocals of the days of yore, not the whiny emo vocals of a large majority of the metalcore bands out there. Needless to say, the power metal influence does give them quite an edge over most other melodeath bands in the genre, that's for sure. Even the keys play a very subtle yet important part in the music overall adding light yet much needed epic touches of atmosphere during specific songs. Some of the songs like “I Am Lies”, “Execution Style” “Public Failure Number One”, “Isolation” and even the bonus track “Death Connection” with its beautiful outro, have some killer almost pop-like hooks with a masterfully mournful edge whereas the rest of the tracks like “Bloodsong” and “Endless Fall” have a much more direct and compatible blend of aggression and melody. Talk about variety! However, if the very mention of the word 'pop' makes you recoil in horror, clearly melodeath is not at all to your liking so don't bother wasting your time reading further.

The guitars are mostly bottom heavy chugs and some really well-crafted melodic licks and solos sprinkled on top, very reminiscent of yet another excellent and underrated Danish act The Arcane Order, but with the technicality and intensity toned down. On a separate note, I’d highly advise you to check them out if you haven’t already. Now the overall sound of this band might sound a bit too simplistic for some out there but man it fucking works seven ways to Sunday with the soaring vocal harmonies and pounding drums, I'll tell you that. The superb production also gives each of the instruments that extra punch that is needed to be heard clearly in the mix. Another fact that might sound strange to a lot of you out there is the fact that the music as a whole is arranged superbly well and that every single bit had its own place in the bigger puzzle. Sure a lot of bands out there might boast of exceptional virtuosity on their respective instruments, but rest assured few can touch these guys when it comes to dynamics and songwriting, which sometimes are the two main things that matter the most when it comes to music in general. Especially in a genre like melodeath where the main emphasis is on "catchiness" and repetitive melodies (in a good way). Once again like all the classic albums out there, I am simply unable to pick standouts as every single song fucking owns in some way or the other.

Honest to god, I am kicking myself for not getting into these guys back in the day itself and depriving myself of such good music. Now that I've finally remedied that, I'm off to listen to the album again. If you haven’t already and claim to have anything close to a good taste in music, I'd highly suggest you do the same.

Mercenary is one of the most successful bands in the Danish metal scene. They have provided us the best possible mixture of beauty and brutality, blending melodious power with harsh extreme death for more than a decade, leaving the band to be one of the leaders of its genre worldwide. Also, they managed to do the most difficult challenge on every band’s successful career, by keeping up the same high level in every release, and even improve it with higher quality, conferred them to reach huge load of fans internationally. Their latest effort wasn’t an exception; as it was a sheer proof that they are capable of making great music and reaching the highest scales in an unbelievable way. Architect of Lies consists of 10 tracks plus a real great bonus named Death Connection. The sound here is so clean and all the instruments are well heard, you can’t really ask for a better production though.

The musicianship on this masterpiece is so catchy, consistent, and you can’t find weak tracks at all. The vocals are so unique, the synthesis of high powerful clean vocals of Mikkel Sandager’ just embellish smoothly with Reni’s high pitched growls, doing a great back to back role throughout the release. Moreover, Mikkel still comes up with some nice harsh stints here and there; leaving a good impact on the listener. The songs Death Connection, Embrace the nothing and I ‘am Lies are the best examples concerning this term.

Another highlight in the album is the guitars; they are melodic, so sharp and powerful. There are memorable riffs and incredible solos in every song, these solos, are simply beautiful and enjoyable to hear; the tracks Isolation, Death Connection and New Desire are some great examples. All these blend with one brutal smashing bass lines, as they are well heard and audible, and added an overall violent sound. The drums here are quite solid. You can hear here some great double bass and awesome patterns added the needed touch. The keyboards role was to add a great atmosphere, melodies and effects, adjusting the overall sound. For some good examples I would pick the tracks Black hollow and Death Connection.

I’m not so sure what kind of musical level you seek if you don’t like this album, this is enough to be called a perfect release. Mercenary once again proved that they are the kings of power melodic death metal. This band got one of the most perfect discographies; any album you pick is a true gem. Anyways, it’s a shame to know that half of the band had to leave, including the brothers Sandager and Park Nielsen the drummer. I hope the rest of the guys will stay on the same level and don’t ruin what has been accomplished so far. This is recommended to every metal fan, just go blindly and purchase your copy now if you want to taste the power melodic death metal architecture.

Highlights: Death connection, New desire, Embrace the Nothing,The Endless Fall, Black Hollow, I’am Lies.

Written for Encyclopaedia Metallum 15-03-2010
© Kimiwind

Full disclosure: Architect of Lies was one of my first real metal albums. I just got into metal back at the beginning of 2008, making me a relative newcomer - and this was the album that did it. It's not hard to see why I'd be hooked - right from the first track this is a very solid album, with great production, amazing vocals, and a lot of catchy hooks to keep the whole thing stuck in your head. That said, now that I have a lot more experience with metal, I can see one big downside to this album: the songs are very similar. To break down the formula, it basically goes: Intro w/ riffs -> Verse -> Chorus -> Verse - > Chorus, and some sort of outro. Making matters worse is the fact that a lot of the choruses, while definitely catchy, sound pretty similar.

It's not even like the band isn't trying to change it up. You can definitely hear them shifting gears throughout the album in terms of rhythm and feel, chilling out on certain tracks and then bringing the heat on others. Unfortunately, the entire album has a very similar sound in terms of the guitar tone/synth sounds and the general roles of the instruments, and making matters much worse is the fact that all the songs are a pretty similar tempo. As such, when combined with the fairly similar song structures and the vocalist's unfortunate knack for singing pretty similar parts throughout the album, it makes the whole thing a bit monotonous as it goes on. In particular, I'd say that the middle of this album gets boring - it definitely picks up towards the end (around track 8 in particular, which is a great song).

With that said, there are still plenty of reasons to give this album a chance. The production is top-notch, with all of the instruments having total clarity and sounding very good. The vocalist is amazing, and the band uses both lower rough vocals and falsetto vocals at the same time, which sounds great. Also worth noting is that the drummer uses a pretty simple style, using very little double bass and sticking to fairly open and stripped down rock beats. It's surprisingly refreshing; in a world full of metal drummers that think they've got something to prove, I love that this guy just lays back and does what feels right. The rest of the band members are equally talented, with some really great lead guitar parts in particular. Lastly, if you ignore the fact that they sound pretty similar, this band has a knack for writing very catchy choruses.

It's also refreshing to hear an album that, while power metal at heart, isn't happy with just following the normal mediocre power metal idioms. Instead, this album is full of melodic death metal influence and is all the better for it. Plus, they aren't singing about elves and orcs and all that. Maybe it's just me, but that gets old quick with a lot of bands, and I'm glad to not see it here. In addition, I love the use of synth in metal, and these guys get some immediate points from me for that. They use it well, mostly filling in with upper harmonies and some occasional melodic stuff.

To conclude: Yes, the album gets a bit monotonous. Regardless of that, this is a kick-ass album that fuses elements of power metal with melodic death metal and does a great job of it. The production's great, and the performances are top-notch. If you want a good and fairly easy listen, or if you want an album to headbang along to during a long drive, look no further: you've found it here.

When April of 2008 rolled around, I had been very eager to purchase the new Mercenary CD, seeing as how I had been drawn to the enticingly unique sound that is Mercenary's brand of metal in the previous release. However, I hadn't known that this particular album wasn't going to be officially released on the U. S. side of the Atlantic until two months had passed and I had gone around like a feverish fool, asking when they would get the new CD. As it is, I had to resort to the medium of online commerce to acquire said CD, and allow me to inform you that, if you know what to expect, then you shan't be disappointed.

On Architect of Lies, each member has taken their instrument here and given an exceptional performance, each separate instrument standing out in their own respects while also uniting gracefully to create this inspiring correlation. Through the crunching guitars, amazingly precise drumwork, and moving vocals, Mercenary have taken their sound even further, a constantly moving piece of interwoven emotion and intensity that will manage to invoke at least one iota of emotion in any listener, due to its multifaceted appearance at a casual listen. If you manage to hit Isolation's chorus, you'll receive moving harmony through Mikkel's impressive vocals; if you begin at I Am Lies, you'll hear an opening riff similar to those of thrash origin; if you arrive at Bloodsong's bridge, you'll be treated to (what I consider to be) one of, if not the best section on the album as the band suddenly levels out to allow Martin an impressive solo that stays on the mind long after the CD itself is over.

The music itself is something of a visionary journey through one's own tormented psyche as he attempts to stay the raging demons within -- or that's what you may believe if you can stomach the lyrics' constant attention to the inner self. Mercenary's lyrics, I have found, have always been simultaneously simplistic and deep -- they rarely, if ever, use any imagery to their lyrics and many of the songs share similar themes, though the feeling of pathetic self-loathing in them seems to be strangely absent (or at least this is what it will seem like in their delivery). If there's anything to be gleaned from Mikkel's penmanship, I believe it's that, unlike many other bands, Mikkel's performance and the accompanying music here, rather than portray a similar feeling of internal agony, are executed on an uplifting basis, a motivational factor for joint union with the overall message of wellness of the soul. Of course, if you don't mind the rather overused song theme here, than you probably wouldn't mind the lyrics overmuch.

Listening to Architect of Lies will bring of a feeling of deja-vu, as this sounds very much similar to their previous two releases, though there are notable differences. For one, the song lengths are shorter in average than on The Hours That Remain... by about one or two minutes, which leaves this CD to clock out ten minutes before its predecessor. But it is my honest opinion that this shortening of music is somewhat intentional to the extent that the sound on this record now sounds more complete, as if Mercenary themselves had focused on maximizing the efficiency of their sound here and truncating any and all filler. As a result, none of the songs feel unnecessarily extraneous nor do any of the sections within them, creating a carefully crafted product of refined music that, for once, doesn't feel like throwaway refuse. Another difference in the music is the almost thrash-like riffs that occasionally appear here, which only further proves Mercenary's musical versatility and their combined skill and dedication to their style.

(Add another 3 points to the score if you manage to obtain the bonus track, Death Connection. Though one song hardly warrants the extra $30 for acquisition of the special edition -- at least if you're in the U. S. -- if you liked this album, then locating this song is a must, as it's a further continuation of the sensational sound of this album and a better closer than Public Failure Number One.)

Despite the signature sound having changed in only small increments since The Hours That Remain..., said changes have proven to be beneficial, as the band is now tighter and more focused on their musical goal by dropping the excess and remaining with the core mixture of elements. Though the lyricism is still a mixed bag, and their mixture of uplifting melodies and intense, almost gravelly sections may turn off some listeners, those that are willing to stay will be rewarded with this excellent result of musician ambition. If you are partial to the idea of mixing musical ideas, Mercenary is a required band to have in your collection, as they don't bother with purist views of separating and maintaining specific sounds, instead selfishly combining several different, seemingly disparate sounds and weaving them together in this tasty concoction built only for the open mind and open ears. The latest result of this process is Architect of Lies.

Throughout metal history there have been examples of ‘fifth’ albums being the change in musical direction for a band. e.g: Metallica’s ‘Metallica’, Sepultura’s ‘Chaos A.D.’, Children of Bodom’s ‘Are You Dead Yet?’ and Sonata Arctica’s ‘Unia’, amongst others. Some have lost a certain band a large number of dedicated followers, while some have gathered newer legions of fans. But what surprises does a certain Danish band named Mercenary bring with its latest release ‘Architect of Lies’?

Well, the 1st thing that one notices is the definite change of sound, but not to the point where the musical direction changes altogether. One noticeable change is the introduction of industrial keyboard effects amongst the trademark overdriven and symphonic tones. Ordinarily this would have weakened the emotional content of the music to the point of being called bastardization. But Morten Sandager has interwoven the modern with the archaic very deftly to actually RAISE the emotional content of the songs. The album starts with ‘New Desire’, a song that begins with very trademark Mercenary-esque crashing riffs amongst a keyboard atmosphere. But once the verse begins, one notices the bad side of the change of sound as well; the very alternative rock style verse riff. Mercenary have used this staccato-laced riffing style (characteristic of bands like Scar Symmetry and Disarmonia Mundi) on a few other songs on this album as well like the single ‘Embrace the Nothing’ and ‘I Am Lies’.But thankfully, this album has the traditional Mercenary touch as well. And LOTS of it. The riff barrages continue, as do the low-end/high-end harmonic rhythms and of course the very intricate double bass and roll styles of drummer Mike Park. I also heard the 1st guitar-keyboard harmonic from this band on ‘The Endless Fall’.

The fact that Mercenary hired a separate producer for vocals is evident but very one-sidedly i.e. in the clean vocals. Mercenary had ‘pleasantly shocked’ metal fans with their 3-layered singing/screaming/growling style on their 2004 release ’11 Dreams’ but alas, their attempts to replicate the same have gone in vain this time. Bass player Rene Pedersen may have the right tone and skill with his instrument, but is MILES away from the magic that former bassist/harsh vocalist Henrik ‘Kral’ Andersen created in the 1st 3 albums. On the other hand, lead vocalist Mikkel Sandager sounds better than ever before with the vocal harmonies and epic higher pitches. Guitarist Jakob Molberg and Martin Buus Pedersen also seem to have learnt a lot more shredding and have implemented it quite well here. Lyrically, the band has taken more of a political turn but the ‘me against myself’ lyrics still exist.

So, to answer the 1st question, Mercenary have chosen to play for the jackpot; if they get it right, it could make legends out of them, but one screw-up and they could lose a LOT of purist fans. This album has an epic/emotional sound, yes, but not one as powerful or consistent as ‘Everblack’, ’11 Dreams’ or ‘The Hours that Remain’. But as far as the music is concerned, it remains highly enjoyable. Highlights of the album: ‘New Desire’, ‘This Black and Endless Never’, ‘Isolation (The Loneliness in December)’, ‘Black and Hollow’ and ‘I Am Lies’.


****Originally written for www.progressiveland.net***********

Let me just begin by stating the fact that I have been an avid listener of Mercenary's numerous musical contributions all throughout their career in metal. So while this review may very well be somewhat biased, I would like to add that their previous album, The Hours That Remain, did not impress me, and it didn't grow on me either.

This album however, Architect of Lies, proved to be quite different, at least to me.
Having been unimpressed by their previous album, I did not storm out and buy it the minute it was released, rather I just let the news of its coming pass me by and ignored it until it had been out for a couple of months. I heard the first segment of the album when overhearing a family member playing the CD in his room while on a visit, and I was intrigued as the music seemed to appeal to me more than the previous album.
And wow, listening to the song "Embrace the Nothing" I was just swept away right back into my fascination of Mercenary. The wonderful lyrics of the album did not sound cheesy to me, like they had done on The Hours That Remain, nor did the melodies seem as unappealing. I listened through the entire album a couple of times and was struck by the loss of Kral, though I did see him doing just fine the other day where he works, and I know he has good reasons for leaving. I miss his style, and even though he stood for most of the lyrics of the old stuff, some of which when performed by Sandager I found cheesy, as stated, I know Kral would have been able to lift this album to perfection. His replacement René does a good job on this album, though somewhat toned down, he doesn't match up to his predecessor.

Huge thumbs up to Martin and Jacob, as always. I particularly like the solo in the track "Isolation", it is godlike, and I always get that chill of pleasure you get from listening to great music when I hear it. That is not the only point of true awesomeness to the album, however, as the wonderful melodies go on and on, particularly in the track "Embrace the Nothing" which is my personal favourite of the album, and conveniently also the first song I heard from the album. Superb.

In short, go get this album now if you're into the style of metal the Mercs play. Awesome music, I hope they continue with this particular style, which is a little bit heavier, and more in tune with their older stuff.

They have done it again. Since 2002 Mercenary have been releasing albums every self-respecting metalhead should own. It's also uncanny how they change their sound with every new release. Some people say that sucks and they keep expecting Mercenary to make another 11 Dreams or another Everblack. But what's the point in making the same album over and over again, right?

Ever since the departure of Kral, all "death" aspects of Mercenary have pretty much vanished. But in it's place, the power and thrash metal aspects have taken center stage. While Kral's replacement René Pedersen may not exactly do death growls, he does a lot of thrashy yelling. Some people say that Pedersen sounds too "core." Bullshit. I have heard a ton of thrash metal and René sounds like a more furious (and Scandanavian) James Hetfield more than that douchebag from Bullet for My Valentine.

I'd say that every member is essential to Mercenary. While guitarists Jakob Mølbjerg and Martin Buus lay furious riff and shredded solo after another, Mike Park's drumming feels like an army battalion charging into enemy territory. Morten Sandager adds an absolutely fantastic atmosphere with his keyboard playing, this guy is like a hybrid of Mustis and Martin Brändström in that he can do an epic atmosphere as well as the futuristic atmosphere/piano parts as well as both of those two men do respectively.

Finally, you have Mikkel Sandager. From poppish-crooning to melodic screams that would do Rob Halford proud, he does it all, and in spades, aces, diamonds, THE WHOLE DAMN CARD DECK! This man holds the band together. The way he sings is just epic. In my opinion, Mikkel is the best clean vocalist in all of Denmark, and definitely among the top ten in Scandanavia. Don't believe me? Go listen to "This Black and Endless Never." The way Mikkel sings makes you feel like you're trapped in a single second of time, and you're witnessing death and destruction all around you. Yeah, he's that good.

When they were recording the album they said that they would go for a more raw and stripped sound. I was instantly worried that it might end up sounding like St. Anger, but thankfully, it doesn't. Sure, it's raw. It doesn't have the HUGE sound of 11 Dreams, but it's still great.

This album also shows Mercenary's songs becoming shorter. Previously a Mercenary song lasted for an average of six-and-a-half minutes. Now it's more around the five minute mark. Also, this album doesn't feel as epic as The Hours that Remain, this one is way more of a thrash fest with a few songs like "Isolation" and "Public Failure Number One." bringing in a little more variety.

I think that this is one album you should not miss at all. Do what the title says, buy this. Before "obZen," before "Watershed," before whatever album you were thinking of going to buy next. This is an absolute essential you would be stupid to miss.

Mercenary is a special band to me. I got to know them on their tour with Evergrey and I have been following them fanatically ever since. 11 Dreams is definitly one of my favourite and most played albums of all time. The thing with their albums is, they have a growing curve. I experienced this with the three albums before Architect of Lies, it's always the same pattern, first you like two or three songs alot and listen to them often, but through that, you listen to the entire album as well. Then the other tracks start to grow on you and you start listening more to them than the ones you liked first, then you 'rediscover' those first songs again and in the end all the songs on the album are just kick-ass great. I experienced this with The Hours That Remain, which I didn't care for much at first and Everblack as well.

Then came the day Mercenary revealed "Embrace the Nothing" on their myspace, needless to say I was nearly puking out of curiosity. The first listen wasn't all that, it was ofcourse myspace quality and my hopes were unsurmountably high. After a few days however I was whistling a tune and couldn't immediatly place it anywhere, until i listeren to "Embrace the Nothing" again, the melody had lodged itself in my brain after only one listen! And the second time I heard it I liked it A LOT more already.

When I gave the entire album a few spins, there was the famous Mercenary phenomenon once again, a few songs just jumped out, fully packed, and camped out in my head for a few days constantly humming the same melodies around their little campfire. "New Desire", "Bloodsong" and "Embrace the Nothing", not coincidentially the first three songs of the album were the "Firesoul", "World Hate Center", "Redefine Me" and "Soul Decision" of the new album, the first songs that stayed in my head and kept me coming back to the album. After a while "Public Failure Number One" and especially "Isolation (the loneliness in december)" took over as favourite songs and to this moment they still are. But like with "My World is Ending", "The Hours That Remain", "Loneliness" or "Falling" from the previous albums, I'm sure the other songs on this album will have their time in the spotlight until I love this album in it's entirety as well and wouldn't be able to pick a favourite.

The songs are definitly different to the previous albums, they say it's their heaviest album to date, well, I don't agree, 11 Dreams is a lot more heavy in my ears, a song like "World Hate Center" is just so agressive, only Bloodsong comes close to the power that one has in my opinion. But this album has other things to offer, the melodies are more intricate and the vocals go up yet another step, just listen to the chorus of "Bloodsong" for instance, Mikkel is just insane. René adds the grunts that were 'missing' on the previous record. He does a good job and though he does indeed have a '-core' sound, it doesn't bother me that much and live he adds even more to the music, as we could tell from their headlining tour last year. What I truly miss in this album however is a grand epic like the title-tracks of both previous albums.

I give this album a rating of 80 now but this number could rise when the other songs of the album grow on me as well. Mercenary has once again made a different record, which I like, no band should make two albums that sound exactly the same. I hope these guys keep evolving and I will keep supporting them in any way I can because they are also really nice guys that deserve all the help and respect they can get.

I'm a recent Mercenary convert, back in 2004 when 11 Dreams came out, I remember thinking "god this is terrible", then for some reason, in the winter of 2007, I decided to give them another chance by forcing myself to listen to 'The Hours That Remain' and I was completely taken away and found myself puzzled how I ever didn't like this band because as of now, they're one of my favorites and I couldn't go on without their music. So, after drying my mouth from drooling when I heard they were making another album, I impatiently waited for it to surface. When it finally did, I heard 'My Desire' and thought "I'm going to love the shit out of this album...".

On Architect of Lies, there are some changes to the Mercenary sound. Most notable, they brought back the harsh, growling vocals from their material pre-11 Dreams, which I found to be extremely pleasing because as much as I loved 'Hours' I thought it would have been 10 times more incredible with these style of vocals. Also changed is the general song length, in the past Mercenary songs generally ran from 5 to 8 minutes long, but here most of the songs run in the early to mid 4 minute range, which means the songs are more concise and are more palatable for those lacking the patience for an 8 minute epic.

Don't fret though, all the other elements people love Mercenary for remain intact. The poetic lyrical content, Sandagers exquisite vocal delivery, the extremely catchy and melodic guitar work and Mike Park's excellent drum work. Some people may still be missing Kral, but personally, I find his replacement's contributions alot more enjoyable such as his vocals, I find they add an extra dimension to Mercenarys sound thus making them much more dynamic than with Kral. Blasphemy? maybe, but I stand by it.

As the 2000's close, Denmarks metal scene is really starting to shine and Mercenary are definetly leading the pack and I can't wait to see where their sound goes from here. They went being one of my most hated musical acts, to one of my absolute favorites. Simply put, Mercenary rule. Get this.

Recommended Listening: New Desire, Bloodsong, Endless Fall