Hi Mikkel… It’s really nice talking to you after 4 years. Congrats on “The Hours That Remain”, as you know we have named it as the Best album of the Month here. You truly did a great job this time.

M: Really? Thank you very much and nice talking to you again.

I remember talking to you about “Everblack”. Back then, you were a newcomer band that had all the potentials to take a leading part in heavy melodic metal music… do you think that you have achieved that now? (I totally believe that… but I want your opinion as well).

M: Well that depends on how you define “leading part”. If it means that we can make a living of it then there is still a bit of road to cover I am afraid. But I definitively think that we have come a long way since “Everblack” was released. The band as a whole has grown so much in the last year and it is not the same band anymore. We are stronger… much stronger.

Before we talk about the new album, I know that this will sound kind of a cliché for you, but I ought to ask about the bassist and lead vocalist Henrik “Kral” Andersen. Why did he leave the band? Did you think back then, to call it quits and continue with another name ‘cause Karl was one of the band’s original members? Also tell us some things about the new bassist/vocalist of the band.

M: He left because he wanted to focus on his life with his family. Being in a band sometimes means you have to neglect the people you love and make absolutely no money in the process. Plus life on the road really wasn’t his thing. You have to be somewhat of a nomad to be able to enjoy it I guess. And we never ever thought of calling it quits. Kral had had a less dominant role in the band since 11 Dreams and so with Jacob being the major songwriter on that album we didn’t feel that we had lost anything important in a songwriting point of view. The thing that scared me the most was the question about me being able to write all the lyrics and melodies on my own for the first time. I don’t know if I pulled it off? You tell me J

OK then, I was wondering about the album’s title? “The Hours That Remain” is a pessimistic title or something? We’re talking about the hours that remain for someone to die… or to achieve something really good?

M: I guess you could view it both ways. Depends on who you are but basically there is a fundamental difference between the way you view life. Either you focus on all the things you did not do in you life and spend the hours you have left being sad about it or you will use the time you have left on living instead of thinking of all the things you didn’t do.

Is there any connection between the album’s title and the artwork? What would you tell to someone to see on the artwork when he will see the album’s cover for the first time?

M: Yeah sure there is. Travis got the title and the lyrics when he was working on the cover artwork. He really caught the theme we wanted almost at once and within two weeks I think the artwork was done. Amazing guy Travis is.

Please tells some things about each one of the song? Just a line or two…

M: “Redefine Me”: This song deals with the emotions I had when I wasn’t sure if Kral was in or out of the band.

“Year of the Plague”: This is basically a song that deals with all the shit in the world… take your pick!

“My World Is Ending”: Deals with the war in Iraq from the perspective of an Iraqis boy who sees his world being destroyed by people he does not know.

“This Eternal Instant”: This song is about describing one instant; you know being in an instant in time that lasts forever. Pretty scary if you think about it.

“Lost Reality”: Krals departure.

“Soul Decision”: The breakup of an old girlfriend who really fucked me up. J

“Simplicity Demand”: Krals departure.

“Obscure Indiscretion”: Life as a musician and all the frustrations that comes with it.

“My Secret Window”: This song deals with my own creativity. A song to my self so to speak.

“The Hours That Remain”: As I said in regards to the album title this song deals with all the different choices we make and how we view the consequences and the remaining time we have left.

What’s the “secret” message that you want to give to your fans with this album?

M: I’ll leave that up to the fans.

Was it difficult for the rest of the band to write down some songs with the trademark sound of Mercenary after Karl’s departure? How difficult was to compose music as long as we consider the fact that Karl was the basic songwriter on the band?

M: Well he really wasn’t the basic songwriter anymore so it wasn’t that difficult.

As long as I know you did all the vocals on the album… (the new bassist/vocalist came after the recordings of the album). How weird and difficult was for you to do all the vocals. Till now you knew that you only had to do the clean/melodic vocals… and now you also did the howling/brutal ones… by the way you did a great job Mikkel.

M: Well I did a lot of screaming vox on “11 Dreams” as well so those weren’t an issue. The growling/shouting vox killed my voice completely as you can see in the bonus DVD so, that part was like Hell for me. I’ll never do that again! And thanks for the nice compliment.

You are a very successful band that releases excellent and qualitative albums from year to year… so, what’s the next big step of the band? What are you trying to achieve with this album in general?

M: World domination!!! No seriously we really wanna do all we can to promote this album as much as possible by touring and hopefully it will do even better than “11 Dreams”.

I think that this time you have a great heavy and clear production… do not think that can be any better in the future… Every new album of the band has better production than the previous one… that was going hand by hand with the evolution of the band I think. What do you think?

M: I agree with you and I think the band evolves through time as does our producer Jacob Hansen. We have a more clear idea of what we want soundwise now and I think the evolution will continue down this track. We wanted a more straight forward sound on “THTR” and I think we got it.

I know that the reaction from the press must have been very good, so far… Have you been expecting it?

M: No. One never knows what to expect because it is close to impossible to judge your own music from an objective point of view. Very pleased with the reactions though! J

Are you planning to go on tour to promote the album? When will you go to Greece ?

M: We have several tours in the planning for next year. We may even do a headliner tour but for now we have a short tour supporting The Haunted in November… can’t wait to get out on the road again!!! Hopefully we will get to Greece this time.

What do you think of today’s heavy metal music… it’s returning back to its 80’s roots or it can be modern and “retro” at the same time?

M: I think the way the bands of today try to combine aggression and melody is awesome. It adds some spice to the music I mean in my personal opinion I get a bit tired of listening to bands that have the same sound/vocal style all the time. With a few rare exceptions where the singer speaks to something in me.

And some weird Questions now!!! Which kind of music do you prefer the most?

M: Heah heah yeah that’s really weird. J Well I listen to a lot of different stuff. I am really into OSI at the moment but always Fates Warning, Soilwork, Dickinsons solo stuff and Nevermore… bands like that.

How difficult is t survive and to succeed in a music world that is ruled by irrelevant people that promote shit-wannabe-good pop music all the time… without caring about music’s quality?

M: Luckily I haven’t met any of the people you speak of yet but it is not easy to even make a small amount of money doing the music you are passionate about. But I think the main reason why it can be hard does not have so much to do with the pop music but is circulation around the fact that extreme metal is a small genre that has a very narrow audience. That is also the reason why you can always be sure that metal musicians are really passionate about what they do. With a couple of exceptions metal musicians are pretty poor people! J

What would you tell to someone to convince him to buy your album instead of hundreds others that are being released every month?

M: Let him buy it and tell him that if he didn’t like it I would buy it back from him!! J

What would you do, if you had supernatural power?

M: Fly. Isn’t that everybody’s dream?

If you were obliged to give just one album to extraterrestrials that which would represent the whole human music… which album would it be and from which band?

M: Mozarts final Requiem. In my opinion one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written.

Do you believe that internet has helped the bands to become more popular or has caused many problems?

M: Well I don’t really fear the internet that much. I feel it gives the newer and smaller bands a perfect way to promote them selves and gives music fans a chance to check out music they would never listen to otherwise.

Which are the things that piss you off from today’s music industry?

M: Not much really. I guess people buy the stuff they wanna listen to and there is really not much I can or want to do to change that.

Imagine that your girlfriend is selling your whole album-collection just to buy for herself an expensive ring. How would you react? J

M: If my girlfriend cared that much about expensive rings she wouldn’t date a metal musician!!! J (interviewer’s note: That’s a good point of view.. Hahaha)

Those were my questions Mikkel. Thanks for the music, please leave a note to Grande Rock readers… Take care!

M: Thanks for the interest and we really hope to see all of you out there on the road some time in 2007. Take care all!

by Thanos Aggelakis