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11 Dreams, by Mercenary gives us an interesting twist in the melodic death metal camp. I cannot purely call it death metal,
as it defies that label at times, but it definitely embraces the melodic part of that title.
It starts out with a dark symphonic, and then delves into the world of aggressive death metal, and then, without missing
a beat, introduces a clean melodic voice into the picture. To me, it sounds like a combination of Julie Laughs No More and
Into Eternity. It has the heavy styling of both, but includes the clean-ish voice, in the Ritchie Blackmore vein. The majority
of the vocals are a harsh speed metal voice, that raspy, but somehow clean feel. They then go into deeper growls, and higher
screeches.
At times, i feel like I am exactly where this genre needs to be, and sometimes, i feel that I am transported back into
the 1980's, due to not only vocals, but due to song structure, and even the structure of the disc itself. While it does not
have a true ballad, it gets close in some parts, as one song starts as a ballad, and then evolves into death metal. Or, the
ballad-esque part is in the middle of a song, adding variety to the music.
As far as sentences go, I think that this album is innocent of all charges of bad metal, even the parts that reek with
the 80's. The differences compliment each other, and provide for an unique listen. This album is a vast improvement from
their early cd, Everblack, and if they continue this, they will grow into a very mature band.
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