Band:	Mercenary
Album:	Architect Of Lies
Style:	Gothenburg metal, Heavy metal
Release date:	March 2008

Disc I
01. New Desire
02. Bloodsong
03. Embrace The Nothing
04. This Black And Endless Never
05. Isolation (The Loneliness In December)
06. The Endless Fall
07. Death Connection [limited edition bonus]
08. Black And Hollow
09. Execution Style
10. I Am Lies
11. Public Failure Number One

Disc II [limited edition DVD]
Live Footage Of Bang Your Head and SummerNights Festivals 2007:
01. My Secret Window
02. 11 Dreams
03. Bang Your Head
04. Soul Decision
05. Firesoul
06. My World Is Ending
07. World Hate Center
08. Redefine Me
09. My Secret Window
10. 11 Dreams
+ Architect Of Lies Studio Report
+ My World Is Ending [video]

There it is. The second iteration of a Mercenary without founder and songwriter Henrik "Kral" Andersen. While the previous album 'The Hours That Remain' deeply suffered from the loss of his voice and songwriting, Mercenary are now back with a new man on bass: René Pedersen. And he sings too.

Luckily Mikkel, Jakob and the rest of the band didn't try to start where they had stopped when Kral left. Instead they use the new potential René offers to reinvent their sound and turn to new musical styles, styles that this new voice supports perfectly. Their new sound features elements of Heavy, Thrash and Hardcore, dominated by the wonderful two voices of Mikkel and the new hardcore vocals of René.

'Architect Of Lies' offers the hardest and most complex sound Mercenary have ever delivered. While the times of catchy arrangements and operatic sounds are not completely past, these arrangements are much better conceived now. Heavy riffs and drums are now Mercenarys main argument. And they state their case well. The guitar work is flawless and clean, the drums are heavy and precise and the keyboards are as subtle as never before. But this album's main strength lies in the incredible interaction between Mikkel and René on the vocal front. There are few bands out there who can rely on singing as such an essential element of the whole arrangement as Mercenary. Ever changing between clean vocals, screams and growls these songs will forever burn themselves into the listeners memory while still being complex enough not to get boring too soon. And Morten's keyboard styles and occasional backup vocals do the rest in rendering this album the magnum opus that it is.

Lyrically the band has found their way back to deeper, more complicated topics. While all lyrics on the previous album were written by Mikkel and Morten, the influence of René on this album is clearly noticeable with phrasing in most songs being much more complex than before.

Buyers of the special edition are however do not get as much as they might expect. Although the two-disc version of 'Architect Of Lies' features the very good bonus track 'Death Connection' on the audio CD, the DVD featuring a few live recordings and a very short studio report suffers from extremely poor sound quality and camera works. Both can be done much better and this really not what I expected from Mercenary.

The Architect of lies is a very solid album and clearly shows that the loss of a major band member can also work out great for a band if they can reinvent themselves on their own. A quality Mercenary definitely show here. This album can be recommended to fans of their old work as well new listeners and it makes curious about forthcoming releases.