MERCENARY — Architect of Lies (review)

MERCENARY — Architect of Lies album cover Album · 2008 · Melodic Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
UMUR
Architect of Lies is the 5th full-length studio album by Danish melodic metal act Mercenary. The album was released in March 2008 by Century Media Records. Since the release of The Hours That Remain (2006), bassist/ vocalist René Pedersen has been added to the lineup. This means that there is a more varied vocal style on this album compared to the vocal style on the predecessor.

The music on the album continues the power metal/ melodeath style of The Hours That Remain but as noted above the addition of René Pedersen to the lineup means that the harsher type vocals are back in the band´s sound. A positive feature IMO. The music is still very melodic and keyboard heavy. Great melodic guitar solos, lots of guitar harmonies, loads of keyboard layers, a powerful rythm section, the strong clean vocals by Mikkel Sandager, a great polished production and a very professional approach to songwriting are some of the ingredients on Architect of Lies. Mercenary´s strength lies in the fact that they are not merely a power metal act or a melodeath ditto. They borrow heavily from both genres and the outcome is, while not completely unique, very succesful. The 10 tracks on the album are all well written, well played and my only complaint is the same I had with the predecessor and that is that I don´t think enough of the songs stand out. There are simply not enough highlights on an otherwise really strong and consistent release. The opener New Desire, Embrace The Nothing and the power ballad type closing track Public Failure Number One are the exceptions where the band branch out in other directions. This is only slightly though and even those songs stay very close to the known formula.

All in all Architect of Lies is another high quality melodic metal release by Mercenary and a 3.5 star rating is deserved. The next release by the band might be quite different though as the Sandager brothers, lead vocalist Mikkel and keyboardist Morten have both left the band. I suspect this will have a vast impact on the band´s sound.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

OPETH`S Epic Headline Show at Bloodstock 2024 | YouTube Premiere | Full Set | August 9th, 2024
OPETH
666sharon666· 16 minutes ago
Opeth '§4' Visualizer/Lyrics Video
OPETH
666sharon666· 16 minutes ago
Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed