Since we had attended the Amon Amarth press conference, we only got to see the end of Mercenary's gig, which was a bit sad since they often play very well live.

There weren't many people who had gotten up this early in the blazing warm morning, or what you'd like to call 4 p.m. on a festival, so the ground before the stage was pretty empty except for a few people. They on the other hand seemed to enjoy the show thoroughly, and also being hosed down with water by the guards. The only thing disturbing this idyllic picture was some guy dancing around on his own, in the nude...

Mikkel Sandager (vocals) was very enthusiastic and fired up as usual, but the rest of the band seemed to suffer a bit from the intense heat, and took it a bit slower on stage compared to what I've gotten used to from these guys.
Mikkel also apologized for the problems they had with their keyboards, and truly they were barely audible most of the time. This, however, did not stop the band from performing the few songs we had time to see with great intensity. The songs were Execution Style and The Endless Fall, both of their latest album Architect Of Lies, and ending the set was 11 Dreams off the album with the same title.
Straight after the show, I saw René Pedersen (bass/vocals) hanging out by the entrance to the backstage area, speaking to fans. It's a good thing, in my opinion, when bands can stay down to earth like this.

Hopefully, we'll get to see a bit more of the show next time, because Mercenary is a band well worth seeing.