Who said those lovable goons over at The Number Of The Blog were good for nothin’? Certainly not us and certainly not with the “Morning Wood” series on Danish epic metallers Mercenary they’ve been running this week. Odin knows we love us some Mercenary here at the Mansion, and TNOTB’s morning posts highlighting one classic Mercenary track per day have been providing us with a fine way to get our mornings started. Mercenary are kinda like Mamoun’s… never a bad idea.

If you ask the peanut gallery (me and Axl) you’ll find that latter day Mercenary material isn’t quite up to the caliber of their earlier stuff; it’s the old cliche, but it’s true. Before half the band left and before they started leaning more towards their power side, Mercenary were an unfuckwithable mix of power, epic, and brute force in that special kind of way that only seems to be possible if you grew up drinking European water. Here’s “World Hate Center” from 2004′s 11 Dreams, a prime example of now-vintage Mercenary done right.

-VN

Biggest and best metal release day of 2011 so far? It certainly seems that way. New records from Amon Amarth, Becoming the Archetype, Blackguard, Cavalera Conspiracy — are you kidding me? there’s still more? — Goes Cube, Havok, Mercenary, Obscura and a Between the Buried and Me best-of comp (with a brand new release coming next week!) all officially come out today. If you’re a devoted metalhead with varied tastes you better have saved up, else you’ll be very, very poor come tomorrow.

Vic Vaughn takes a look at all those release — and yes, EVEN MORE — after the break.

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An anonymous reader sent me the below video, and I didn’t look at the title before I clicked the link. So my first thought was that the band in the clip was Sonic Syndicate. (My second thought was, “Edsel Dope is in Sonic Syndicate now?”) This band is not Sonic Syndicate, though — they’re called Amaranthe, because there’s nothing more metal than purple flowers. But can you blame me for my mistake? Like Sonic Syndicate, Amaranthe play terrible re-swede that makes me wish the members of In Flames had never been born; like Sonic Syndicate, Amaranthe clearly have more interest in fashion than originality; and like Sonic Syndicate’s last horrendous video, this was directed with sleek Hasbro movie visuals by Patric Ullaeus.

Anyways, this is something of a super group. Drummer Morten Løwe used to be in The Arcane Order, and plays on the new Mercenary album, which is not as bad as I thought it would it be but isn’t very memorable, either; clean vocalist Jake E. Lundberg (the Dope-y looking one) was in Dream Evil (although after Gus G. left the band — in other words, after I stopped paying attention to Dream Evil); and female vocalist Celine Dion, of course, previously appeared in the movie Titanic, where she starred as the iceberg that sinks the ship. I don’t know why I needed to tell you that these people have done other things during their careers, I just thought I should point it out before some smart-ass in the comments section did.

-AR

Maybe it’s just my imagination, but it seems like there was a week or two there where we weren’t being sent a lot of reader recommendations… and then over the past four or five days, I feel like we’ve just been bombarded with “YOU HAVE TO CHECK OUT THIS BAND THEY RULE SO HARD!!!” e-mails. Since it seems to be a slow news morning, I thought I’d go through a bunch of ‘em, picking out bands completely at random.

I haven’t listened to any of these bands in advance of writing this, so the following column will be one of those “Let’s discover the music together!”-type deals. Inevitably, some/most of these groups are gonna blow, but hopefully we’ll find a gem or two in the pile as well.

And so…

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Here’s two things I don’t understand about “In Bloodred Shades,” the new Mercenary song (below):

• Why “bloodred” and not “blood red?”
• How do you challenge In Flames and then release something that sounds like it should have been on A Sense of Purpose?

I’ve been listening to this song and various tunes from The Hours That Remain back-to-back, trying to figure out why I like this less than the band’s old material, because in a lot of ways, the changes to the band’s sound have been minimal — they’re still powered by Gothenburg riffs and good cop/bad cop vocals, after all.

But…

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The above quote appears right at the start of the new trailer for Mercenary’s forthcoming offering, Metamorphosis. And I guess if we’re talking about 11 Dreams or The Hours That Remain versus A Sense of Purpose or Soundtrack to Your Escape, well, uh, I wouldn’t disagree with the sentiment. I think the quote is kinda confusing, though, both because I don’t know why Mercenary would want to lob at bomb at In Flames, and because I have no idea if it comes from a review of Metamorphosis or one of the band’s other albums. And if it refers to one of the band’s other albums, well, this version of the band has a 50% different line-up, so it doesn’t necessarily apply anymore.

I haven’t felt encouraged by what we’ve heard of Metamorphosis so far, and this trailer doesn’t do much to make me feel any more optimistic. But I’m super-curious to hear it. I don’t want Mercenary to fail; I just know how bad metal sucks.

Here’s the trailer…

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The above quote appears right at the start of the new trailer for Mercenary’s forthcoming offering, Metamorphosis. And I guess if we’re talking about 11 Dreams or The Hours That Remain versus A Sense of Purpose or Soundtrack to Your Escape, well, uh, I wouldn’t disagree with the sentiment. I think the quote is kinda confusing, though, both because I don’t know why Mercenary would want to lob at bomb at In Flames, and because I have no idea if it comes from a review of Metamorphosis or one of the band’s other albums. And if it refers to one of the band’s other albums, well, this version of the band has a 50% different line-up, so it doesn’t necessarily apply anymore.

I haven’t felt encouraged by what we’ve heard of Metamorphosis so far, and this trailer doesn’t do much to make me feel any more optimistic. But I’m super-curious to hear it. I don’t want Mercenary to fail; I just know how bad metal sucks.

Here’s the trailer…

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Seems like there’s been a spate of significant band signings over the last week in the world of metal. Despite all the industry’s woes, it’s good to know that labels are still investing in bands. But that begs the question… what kind of deals are these bands getting? Do their deals have advances? Do they include merch? Do they include mandatory monthly ass-fuckings? Inquiring minds would like to know.

After the jump let’s take a look at the new label homes of Chimaira, A Life Once Lost, Demolisher, Funeral for a Friend and Mercenary, and how those new relationships might work out.

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So Mercenary shed 50% of their line-up last year, losing vocalist Mikkel Sandager, drummer Mike Park Nielsen, and keyboardist Morten Sandager because they “no longer share the same vision” for the group as their bandmates; remaining members Martin Buus, Jakob Mølbjerg, and René Pedersen apparently “wanted to play faster, heavier and more modern (yet old school) material.” And that sounds encouraging, but anytime a great band suddenly loses a substantial amount of its line-up, fans will inevitably be on pins and needles waiting to hear new material to see how everything pans out.

And if you’re a Mercenary fan, those pins and needles just drove themselves right up into your feet, causing you to fall to the ground screaming in agony while you roll around in a puddle of your own blood.

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We were pretty devastated when Mercenary suddenly shed 50% of their line-up last November; you’re talking about not only a band that Vince and I have spent countless hours rocking out to, but one of the only power metal (or semi-power metal, I guess) bands that I actively enjoy.

But in January the band announced their new line-up, and now there’s a video of new drummer Morten Løwe laying down drums for their new album. And because I love Mercenary, and because Løwe has been in The Arcane Order, I am choosing to be optimistic and predicting that the new Mercenary album is going to rule. IT’S GOING TO RULE, I SAY!

No idea when this album is coming out… but we will be following its development closely.

-AR

[via Metal Underground]

Kamelot are one of those bands that I’ve heard about for-ever and never, ever actually listened to. Why, you ask? I dunno. Probably because they’re called “Kamelot.” That’s one of those band names that tells you everything you need to know before you ever hear a single note. Seriously. I don’t mean to judge a book by it’s cover, but like Doc Coyle said: if you went to see a band called “Fuck You in the Eye Socket” and they sounded like DragonForce, you’d feel pretty misled, right? And we all know what genre any band called “Kamelot,” or whose name is in any way a misspelling of something from a famous legend about knights and shit, is going to to play. But in case you’re a total dolt and are thinking “Grindcore?” right now, keep in mind that their albums always have titles like Epica and Dominion and Eternity for Men, and covers that look like this:

So, yeah. Power metal. And not good power metal, like Mercenary or Communic; power metal so cheesy you could mix it with your macaroni.

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Yesterday’s commentary on the disappointing new Raintime single had two positive effects. 1) Everyone’s favorite negative nancy Ziltoid actually agreed with me on something, not just that the new single is weak but that 2008′s Flies & Lies was a good album [just watch, he'll come back now and say something else], 2) Some modern power metal fans came out of the closet to share new bands with us, amongst them Suckalo Andy Synn to tell us about Communic.

Mr. Synn also made a good point, namely that bands like Mercenary, Firewind, Raintime and Communic aren’t really power metal. As he put it so succinctly, “No frilly shirts, no lyrics about orcs/elves/woods/battles, just big riffs and big vocals.” True enough. But I guess that if radio programmers today are calling MGMT and Vampire Weekend modern “alternative” then we can call the aforementioned bands modern power metal by the same extension.

So, Communic are pretty fucking rad. The songs on Communic’s MySpace page are exactly what I’d want from any of these bands… just big riffs and big vocals. And the cheese factor is definitely there, but that’s why we like it.

-VN

A few weeks ago Cosmo Lee at Invisible Oranges called for power metal fans to defend the (in his opinion) indefensible genre, a call which I readily answered because I love the stuff. Almost on cue, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable issued his own defense of power metal — I swear I didn’t prompt him — claiming that in its current unpopular state, playing power metal in 2010 is about as punk rock as you can get. I salute you, Sacha.

Raintime, one of my favorite Europowercheese bands, have come out with a new song this week on the MySpace page of their American record label, Bieler Bros. The song, “Fire Ants,” comes from their forthcoming March 16th release Psychromatic. Their last release Flies & Lies was an excellent album so I’m curious what this new record will hold for these fine Italian gentlemen, but based on the new track I’m kind of nervous. Musically the song is solid if unspectacular, but vocally it’s weak as hell. Nevermind the fact that Claudio Coassin has ditched his vocal growls completely… I’m more concerned with the fact that his clean vocals kind of suck. Perhaps this was the case on Flies & Lies and I just didn’t notice because the music and songwriting were so strong. There’s a new pre-pro track on Raintime’s own MySpace page which leaves me feeling pretty much the same way.

Way to not give me any more ammo in my power metal argument, guys. With Mercenary ditching half their band last year and Gus G.’s obligation to Ozzy over Firewind for the immediate future, what have we modern power metal fans got left?

-VN

Half these dudes ain’t even in the band anymore!

No, I don’t mean that our favorite Dutch Danish [Sorry! -Ed.] power-death metallers are making a crabcore album – at least, they’re not as far as I’m aware.

No, I’m referring to the fact that Mercenary are handling their decimated line-up situation not just by hiring new members, but by shifting some old ones around, too. The band have announced not only the addition of new drummer Morten Løwe Sørensen to their ranks, but that bassist René Pedersen – who has also handled the band’s screaming/growling/non-singing vocals up since 2006 – will now step up to the plate to take the place of departed clean vocalist Mikkel Sandager, too. A statement from the band reads:

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These are some of my favorite producers and mixers for heavy music… It’s a challenging genre, and these guys are great in my opinion.

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A reader known only as “Mike” tipped us off that one of our most favoritest bands, Denmark’s Mercenary, has parted ways with three of its six members: vocalist Mikkel Sandager, drummer Mike Park Nielsen, and keyboardist Morten Sandager.

Rhythm guitarist Jakob Mølbjerg explains in a statement:

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Here’s Mercenary’s new video, for the song “The Endless Fall,” which comes off the group’s 2008 offering Architect of Lies.

The truth is, it’s only an okay video, but Vince and I fucking love this band, and if we can convince even one of you to check ‘em out, then we’ve done our job. You could start with Architect of Lies, but I actually recommend The Hours that Remain, which kicks so much ass you’d think it was Christian Bale.

-AR

High school Vince Neilstein would’ve loved Edguy if only he’d known about Edguy. Your Motley Crue-monikered editor took a break from metal during his high school years let down by the demise of the hair bands and the invasion of the nu-metal dunder-heads, completely oblivious to all the great music our European friends were creating on the other side of the pond. But when I discovered Iron Maiden my senior year it was all over, and so began my long, but deep descent into the world of metal (egged on by one Axl Rosenberg, to be sure). Tickle your funny bones with this one: summer after Senior year I went all by my lonesome to see Iron Maiden at Madison Square Garden — ’cause no one else I knew gave two shits about metal — with a rolled joint ready to rock in my wallet. Needless to say, it was life-changing.

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Power metal, by its very definition, is a pretty cheesy genre, and so I don’t feel one bit embarrassed to tell you that the reason I like Mercenary so much is because of how emotional their music can get. My favorite Mercenary song remains the eight minute epic “Lost Reality” from the band’s last album, 2006′s The Hours That Remain; and although I have no idea what the hell singer Mikkel Sandager is getting at when he cries “Embraces what’s left behind/Forgive my sense of lost reality,” his vocals are so full of palpable longing, and the music behind them soars so very high, that it gets me kinda stirred up inside every time I listen to it.

So, yes, I am a little disappointed with Mercenary’s latest offering, Architect of Lies – mostly because it doesn’t achieve those moments of operatic sublimity nearly so often as its predecessor did. And fans looking for the band to return to the somewhat more raw, less polished (and also, I would argue, less focused) sound of 2004′s 11 Dreams are probably going to feel let down, too.

But here’s the thing: Architect of Lies still kicks major, major ass, and may very well set the bar for all other power metal releases in 2008.

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It’s a good day to be a metalhead. Cavalera Conspiracy’s Inflikted, the long-awaited reunion of Max and Iggor Cavalera of Sepultura, finally comes out today, though it’s been on the Internet for months receiving critical acclaim (read Axl’s review). Firewind and Mercenary release a dual-shot of epic, European power-prog in the form of their new albums The Premonition (read Vince’s review) and Architect of Lies, respectively. Jucifer’s L-Autrichienne combines metal of, well, pretty much every sort for this excellent release (read Axl’s preview and Iann Robinson’s rave). Korpklaani’s folk-metal explosion Korven Kuningas also hits the shelves, which we can best describe as Tetris-metal.

Not a bad day to be a metalhead, best next week promises to be even better with new releases from In Flames, Joe Satriani, Sevendust, Nadja and The Sword.

-VN