The Danish metal scene may not be as big as that in some of it’s neighbouring countries, but with bands like Mercenary on the horizon, as a country, it may just have the same sort of impact impact on the metal world in the near future.  Before their show supporting Death Angel in Wolverhampton, I caught up with guitarist Jakob Mølberg to talk about their new album and find out more about the band. 

Your new album, Architect Of Lies, came out last month, how has it been received? 

Jakob Mølberg: Very well I think.  I think in general people appreciate the fact that we now have two singers again on the album, as on the 11 Dreams album.  I think that goes to both, people at the live shows and the press in general seem to like that direction here.  But of course whenever you change your sound some people wanted you to have stayed the same, you can’t please them all.  But the reactions are really good and we did some Danish live shows for the release, we played the entire album from beginning to end and that was really cool, went down really well and that’s nice.  That’s not what we will be doing here.

Not in 30 minutes. 

JM:  Not in 30 minutes no. 

The album got into the Danish top 40. 

JM:  Yeah, like 35 or 36 I think.  We have been working the Danish market pretty hard, I mean trying to do everything we can and we got a video on national TV a couple of times which really was a lucky break for us.  We tried to get out in all the small cities and give each venue a go to see if there is something to be built up on.  So it seems like the Danish market is starting to appreciate metal more. 

You won an award for your previous album The Hours That Remain.

JM:  Yeah, we have this Danish metal awards thing going.  There used to be Danish music awards and they had a hard rock category and then they cut it away.  Then this parallel event started up, metal awards, and is really cool, lots of people, big venue, really professional.  So yeah we won the album of the year award for the last album, so that is really cool, especially because it was at a time where our old founding member Karl had just left the band and we did the first album after his departure so therefore it was a good pat on the back. 

Are there any founding members left in the band?  

JM:  No.  It’s kind of a matter of different issues because I’ve been on every album recording since 95 but not the early demos, so that is kind of the pending album.  Where it is actually the beginning. 

Was it difficult writing new material given that The Hours That Remain was such a popular album? 

JM:  Not really, I mean, for the last two albums we’ve felt that there were some expectations of good live reviews and that we had to, once in a while we thought ‘how can we really do this again?’.  But when we wrote songs we didn’t really think about it, it was much more like trusting ourselves and each other with the way that we put something forward and work on it and do our best in the studio.  I think the way to keep fresh is not to try to repeat exactly what you did right on the other album, but do something that’s slightly different, cool in a slightly different way, a bit heavier a bit more melodic or a bit softer.  Just try some new inspirations and do it a bit differently and I think we have been doing that always and that kind of keeps it fresh.

Did you find that you were writing a lot of material, are you a band that ends up with 50 songs? 

JM:  Actually no, truth be told, we really wrote the new album in a hurry.  We started the song writing process in mid/late August last year and we entered the studio mid October.  We had 15 shows in that stretch of time so it was very hectic, so we just threw down what we had.  When we wrote something if it worked, and we felt that it worked the first time we kept it.  Every other album we went back to the material and changed the details and tried different combinations, added keyboards, you know.  This time it was much more like ‘OK this works’, we use it, we keep it.  From a pragmatic level it gave us the time to do the album, but I also think it gave the music some immediacy and I think that particularly comes across live because the songs are very direct; you know, meant to be played live. 

And the line up change is working well?

JM:  Yeah, it is working well, definitely yeah.  We have had Rene, our new bass player/singer, in the band as a touring member for almost one and a half years when we began recording the new album, so it was really like ‘it is great, it is a band’.  Of course we have never tried to write an album with him, so he was like torn in the middle, as a bass player he was coming up with riffs and as a singer he was coming up with vocal ideas, but in the end he put his efforts into the vocal arrangements because he is primarily a singer and secondary a bassist.  That was who we advertised for when we wanted a sixth member again ,and besides we have enough guys to make riffs already.  But it’s not like it was a matter of principle, there was a very pragmatic way to look, we do this, you do this and in a fucking hurry. 

Are there any songs on the album that are perceived to be stand out tracks?  Are there any band favourites? 

JM:  Well, no, on this album we are very much divided.  I like the track Isolation, because it really embodies an element we have always had in the music, you know, it’s almost goth rock.  We had that on songs like My World Is Ending and 11 Dreams and you know some of that hard chugging simple beats with some melancholy into it, I like that but we would never make an album just with those kind of songs.  Personally I really love track four Black And Endless Never because it’s very fast, it’s very direct and has some big epic dark vibes to it.  But I guess each person has their different favourite track on this album. 

Are there any guest musicians this time, wasn’t Bjorn from Soilwork on the last one? 

JM:  Yes he was on the last one.  But no we didn’t.  We really felt that we had to work hard and focus our efforts and, you know, we were talking to different people to try and see if we could make it work.  Like we were talking to Mille from Kreator because he would be in our town by the time we recorded the album, the vocals, in a nearby studio, but it didn’t really work out.  We didn’t feel that is was quite as necessary this time, now that we have Rene as well.  So rather than spreading out our attention we just focused.  Jacob Hanson, our producer, he suggested a few guitar parts that he had recorded while we were on a break from the studio, and he did some backing singing, but no apart from that. 

I think the artwork for the album is good, who decided on that? 

JM:  This time we had this idea of, you know, a human torso perhaps tearing itself up with some badness being revealed, or something like that.  We suggested this to Niklas Sundin and he was onto the idea and came up very quickly with something that was kind of similar to the finished cover, with this abstract torso with the lines out.  But it was different face, different background, so we gave some feedback, asked for the colours to be changed and he got this idea of using an almost entirely white background.  So it was really, you know, ping pong, I think no more than a week passed from when we saw the first sketch to we had approved the final cover, it went really quick because sometimes it has been a matter of months going on and on and seeing 20 different versions.  I do believe I have like 20 different versions of the Everblack cover on my computer back home.   

So you are now touring the album, everyone knows that they are in the UK, no-one is going to get the wrong country like they did earlier in the tour? 

JM:  Oh no, you read that?  Well I think that was stress, at some point wasn’t really too aware of what his tour pass was saying.  Also England has it’s own particularity, and that’s nothing against the people, but the venues are a bit rough, a bit run lower in condition a bit like you take what you get. 

Tonight you have a small stage, how are you all going to fit on? 

JM:  I don’t know, I don’t know if we do because actually Death Angel are setting up their drums and then we’re putting ours in front and I don’t know if we will… seriously.

You’ll have to play in the crowd. 

JM:  I mean one time we played in Germany there was a stage slightly smaller than this but then we only had to place one drum kit and our keyboard player ended up behind the bar, having his keyboard on the bar.  But it’s not in the right position, we’ll see, I’m sure we will manage. 

I heard that it is already sold out tonight, so that’s always something you feel grateful for.  You’ve got to do your best no matter what mindset you’re really in.

Have you ever headlined in the UK?

JM:  No, we never did that.  We did the headlining tour last year, like for three, four weeks but that was mostly Germany and the surrounding Countries.  Actually I think we could do some shows, headlining over here, we had a very good response in London.  All the people were really amazing, really happy, so let’s see.  I mean, personally I would hope to be able to play a festival before returning because then you would get a lot of people curious.

You are playing Wacken and Metal Camp in Slovenia?

 M:  Yeah, Metal Camp.  We are obviously hoping to get on at Bloodstock, that would be really good.  Because it is a very big market and many bands tour a lot over here, so let’s hope for the best.

You also toured briefly with Megadeth recently, was that a couple of days or the full tour? 

JM:  No that was only a couple of days.  It was a matter of, you know, we have a Danish promoter and we have like a European promoter and they both approached the management of Megadeth suggesting us, so we got one show in Copenhagen with Volbeat, and we got four shows in Germany, and that was as main support so that really came out of nowhere.   

Did the Megadeth fans accept you?  I saw them recently in the UK and the main support did not go down too well. 

JM:  Yeah I heard, Job For A Cowboy, I know people were shouting at them and that sounded like a really rough time, they’re American aren’t they? 

Yes they are. 

JM:  So they flew over here to have bottles thrown at them. 

I didn’t see anything thrown at them, but it was a shame that people did not give them a chance.  You didn’t get anything like that?

JM:  No not at all.  Actually of course you get some people who are only there for Megadeth and no matter what music you play and how well you play they are just going to stand there like ‘get off my stage’.  But seriously I think that we came over pretty well and, for me personally, the response of the audience was one thing, but for me actually the main thing was being there with Megadeth, you know, my teenage idols.  We went on stage to sing backing vocals on Peace Sells for the last evening, and we were standing there singing, you know really out of pitch, and Dave Mustaine was standing there, that was awesome. 

Delving into the band history, there was a big gap between 1998 and 2002, when you had a change of line-up and you changed your style a bit. 

JM:  Yeah, exactly, which is also why it took so long.  I mean we felt that at that point we had been playing for some years and we didn’t really feel like we had advanced very much so we wanted to do this next album in a way where we got the most out of it.  So we borrowed a shit load of money from the bank, personally, booked the studio ourselves and paid for everything and tried to make the best of it.  Then Mikkel, and his brother Morten, they were supposed to be just guest musicians on a few tracks but the music we got going at that time, the songs we had written, they were already recorded.  The guys came down and, you know, it was just magical, it really was so cool, what they did.  We were very happy about it and then we actually decided to break off the recordings, put them on hold, and go back and work some more with these tracks to change the vocal arrangements and so on.  And then when the album was done we wanted to get this album a really good label, so we took it around some times and negotiated with different people and got Hammerheart Records, which at the time was a huge step up in the world for us, because we were living out of a small base, one man label.  It did a lot of promotion, which was really cool, but they couldn’t really give us the tour support or get us out, so we actually did the same thing again on the next album, paid for all the recordings and went out shopping.   

In a way, even though I have been playing with the band since 1995, I think that the real beginning of this band is at 2000/2001 where we recorded Everblack, because that is when we went from being four to being six and that’s what this band is all about today.

Earlier you mentioned the Danish music scene, the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian scenes are quite big, what is the Danish metal scene like?  There are bands becoming more noticeable, The Arcane Order, Mnemic, yourselves, is there a bit of a breakout happening? 

JM:  Yeah, it is.  It’s like there’s a Danish movement going on now I think.  In part consisting of a lot of old farts like me, who’ve been around playing in 3, 4, 5 different bands and have grown up a bit and have a lot of experience.  No-one wants to be doing it, you know, they are going rather quickly about the whole process of finding a band, recording some stuff, getting a deal, going on tour.  I mean some bands, if you are just a kid, you expect eight years on the road.  So it’s a mixture of old experienced people from other bands who were always in the scene and ourselves, and I think there is also a second wave of young people being inspired by the older generation, seeing that you can actually get a deal outside of Denmark, you know, you can go on tour if you want to.  Also there is the Danish metal awards where there is the best live act of the year, the best debut, the best demo.  So even though you’re only in your rehearsal room, you can get a lot of attention rather quickly if you get good.  So I think that’s something new, mostly, got a lot of people to get their shit together.   

I see that the band log onto your own forum and actually answer the fans. 

JM:  We try to.

Is something you do more on tour or is it a general thing?

JM:  It’s something that we generally do but of course when you are on tour you don’t really have anything better to do.  We try to do it but I mean sometimes people ask questions where you don’t really know what to think and what to say, so you don’t give a reply then you forget about it.  Sometimes the forum is busy, you don’t notice all the posts, but we try.  If people have a genuine concern, a question or something that they want to address, then we try to answer it.  But we can’t answer if people are just go ‘hey you were great’. 

Lastly is there anything you would like to add or say?

JM:  Thank you to all the people here in the UK who came out to give us a chance because we really expected this to be a low on this tour, but actually we had a blast every night, it’s been really good.  For people who have not heard about us, you can check out some new songs on our MySpace profile:  www.myspace.com/mercenarydenmark and obviously we have the new Isolation video on Youtube as well. 

Mercenary's new album, Architect Of Lies is out now via Century Media. To find out more about the band then you can check out their official website @ www.mercenary.dk

Darren Brushneen