UMUR
"Everblack" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Danish metal act Mercenary. The album was released through Hammerheart Records in March 2002. It´s the successor to "First Breath" from 1998 and features quite a few lineup changes since the predecessor as lead guitarist Nikolaj Brinkman has been replaced by Signar Petersen. Maybe a bit more significant keyboard player Morten Sandager and clean lead vocalist Mikkel Sandager (who are brothers) have been added to the lineup making Mercenary a sextet on "Everblack".
Adding a clean vocalist and a keyboard player to the lineup were conscious choices and the new members of the lineup have great impact on the band´s sound. The instrumental part of the music is still a heavy but melodic type of death metal with a melancholic and sometimes epic atmosphere. Henrik "Kral" Andersen still performs the growling vocals (and also plays the bass), while new lead vocalist Mikkel Sandager performs the clean vocals on the album. He is a powerful vocalist with a strong voice and a relatively varied arsenal of clean/slightly raw vocal styles. The keyboards provide epic moments to the music, but also more atmospheric nuances. So the heavy melodic death metal elements are combined with dark and heavy power metal elements.
"Everblack" is a relatively long album featuring 12 tracks and a total playing time of 60:06 minutes and while all tracks are relatively memorable and of a decent quality, there is a feeling that the tracks aren´t that different from each other and the textures and atmosphere of the music are very similar on all tracks. It all becomes a bit massive and the music could have prospered from a couple of less layered moments or in other words room to breathe. With that in mind I therefore feel that the album overstays its welcome.
Quantity isn´t a major issue when evaluating "Everblack" though, and it´s overall still a quality release by Mercenary and a step forward in the development of their sound. They would perfect the sound they introduced here on the next album, so this is a transition release from their slightly more raw sounding debut to the refined and mature sound of "11 Dreams (2004)". A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.