MERCENARY Frontman Interviewed By THE AGE OF METAL (Audio)

The Age Of Metal recently conducted an interview with bassist/vocalist René Pedersen of Danish melodic death metallers MERCENARY. You can now listen to the chat using the Mixcloud widget below.

MERCENARY's seventh album, "Through Our Darkest Days", was released on July 26 via NoiseArt Records. The CD was recorded at Hansen Studios in Ribe, Denmark with longtime producer Jacob Hansen (RAUNCHY, VOLBEAT, NIGHTRAGE, HATESPHERE, PYRAMAZE). The cover art was created by Mircea Eftemie (guitarist of MNEMIC),who has previously worked with SOILWORK, ILLDISPOSED and others.

"Through Our Darkest Days" track listing:

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 (bonus track)

MERCENARY comments on the cover: "Last year when we were busy with pre-productions, we considered reaching out to Mircea to ask if he'd like to give our new cover a shot, because we liked his recent stuff and wanted to try someone with a fresh approach. Against all odds, however, he actually beat us to it and contacted us first with the exact same offer, so it very much seemed as a collaboration that was meant to be.

"After a few sketches, we quickly locked on to the main motive of the cover, which we felt was both iconic, mysterious, and not least, oddly disturbing. Most importantly perhaps, we also felt that Mircea's artwork had managed in a natural way to combine something fresh with the style of our older album covers and their dark and atmospheric vibes.

"As our new album is very much a combination our latest material with a lot of the more traditional melodic and melancholic elements of previous MERCENARY albums, we felt that this was a perfect visual expression of MERCENARY's sound and identity in 2013.

"The cover symbolizes a darkness that we have gone through as a band, which we feel that we have finally been able to put behind us.

"The title of the album is meant very positively and thematizes both the journey through existential darkness as a general theme and the ability to break through it.

"The lyrical universe is very much about making the most of life and not getting caught up in negativity."

Adds Eftemie: "I wanted to make something that had a direct visual relation to the album title, but also follow the design patterns of the older MERCENARY album covers, to keep their identity and brand intact. After swapping ideas back and forth, we ended with a piece not too abstract, but dark and disturbing enough to portray the concept of the new album. It was absolutely a pleasure working on this piece!"

MERCENARY 2013 is:

Jakob Mølbjerg - Guitar
René Pedersen - Bass, Vocals
Martin Buus - Lead Guitar
Peter Mathiesen - Drums