''11 Dreams'' is the third studio album by Danish

melodic death metal Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath) is a subgenre of death metal that employs highly melodic guitar riffs, often borrowing from traditional heavy metal (including New Wave of British Heavy Metal). The genre features the heavines ...

band

Mercenary A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...

, released through

Century Media Records Century Media Records is a German heavy metal record label with offices in Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. In August 2015, Century Media was acquired by Sony Music for US$17 million. Background Century Media was founded by R ...

. The original version was released in 2004, that being in Europe, the American version was released one year later, in 2005. The U.S. release contained two bonus tracks, one being a 3D version of the song "11 Dreams", and another being a radio edit of the song. This is the first album featuring Mike Park on drums and Martin Buus on lead guitars. This is also the final album to feature founding member Henrik "Kral" Andersen on bass guitar and

death growls The death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other extreme subgenres of heavy metal music. Sometimes death growl vocals are criticized for thei ...

Reception

"Denmark's Mercenary are following bands like

In Flames In Flames is a Swedish Heavy metal music, heavy metal band, formed by guitarist Jesper Strömblad in Gothenburg in 1990 out of the Swedish death metal, Swedish death metal scene. Their lineup has changed several times, with vocalist Anders Frid ...

and

Soilwork Soilwork is a Swedish melodic death metal band from Helsingborg. They have released twelve studio albums. Formed in late 1995 by Björn Strid and Peter Wichers, the band was originally known as ''Inferior Breed''. In late 1996, they changed t ...

in terms of adding more symphonic and melodic elements to their brand of extreme metal with their latest release ''11 Dreams''. A greater emphasis is placed on catchy vocal hooks, where the clean vocal passages from Mikkel Sandager trade off with the more aggressive

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

stylings from bass player Henrik 'Kral' Andersen." "Highly progressive, Mercenary are influenced by bands like Soilwork, In Flames,

Nevermore Nevermore is an American Heavy metal music, heavy metal band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1992. The band was formed after three of its members — vocalist Warrel Dane, bassist Jim Sheppard and guitarist Jeff Loomis — ended their prev ...

Sentenced Sentenced was a Finnish gothic metal band that played melodic death metal in their early years. The band formed in 1989 in the town of Muhos and broke up in 2005. Lead guitarist Miika Tenkula was the band's vocalist for the first album, but du ...

, and pretty much anything Scandinavian and influential, as well as occasionally throwing in a bit of

thrash Thrash may refer to: *Thrashing (computer science), where increasing resources are used to do a decreasing amount of work *Thrash (surname) * Thrash, mascot of the Atlanta Thrashers *''Thrash Rally'', a top-down perspective rally racing video game ...

Track listing

Personnel

*Jakob Mølbjerg – rhythm guitar *Mikkel Sandager – clean vocals *Henrik "Kral" Andersen –

death growl The death growl, or simply growl, is an extended vocal technique usually employed in extreme styles of music, particularly in death metal and other Extreme metal, extreme Heavy metal genres, subgenres of heavy metal music. Sometimes death gro ...

s, bass *Morten Sandager – keyboards *Mike Park – drums *Martin Buus – lead guitar Guest appearances * Monika Pedersen – additional vocals on "Firesoul" and "Falling" *Jacob Hansen – backing vocals on "Sharpen the Edges" *Ziggy – backing vocals on "Sharpen the Edges" Production *Art by

Niklas Sundin Niklas Sundin (born 13 August 1974) is a Swedish musician, best known as a founding member and former lead guitarist of the melodic death metal band Dark Tranquillity from 1989–2020. In 2019, he founded his own band called Mitochondrial Sun, w ...

References

{{Authority control 2004 albums Century Media Records albums Mercenary (band) albums Albums produced by Jacob Hansen