"I'm happy to announce that I have now joined Mercenary. After having shared the stage with Mercenary alongside my band Submission, I became really impressed by their shows and musicianship, so I'm really looking forward to deliver some kick-ass shows as their drummer. I'm also very excited about being involved in the writing for the next album. It will show a new Mercenary, and I mean that in a very positive way. In my opinion the new material will definitely be the strongest to this date!"

Explains Mike Park Nielsen:

"I've decided to leave the band for various reasons. First and foremost because I feel that in the last year or so we have all drifted in different directions musically. Another important factor is that I moved to Copenhagen in August this year which wasn't really a problem in itself. The problem is that I don't have the same contact with the band and I've started to see the band as six very different components instead of one unit."

Guitarist Jakob Mølbjerg has issued the following update on behalf of the Danish metallers:

"Last November, [drummer] Mike told us that he wanted to leave the band permanently. The rest of us did some serious thinking and soul-searching, sat down and had 'the big talk' and came to the agreement that the only way to continue the band was to part ways with Mikkel [Sandager, vocals] and Morten [Sandager, keyboards] as well. With Morten as our new drummer, we now have a complete lineup since René Pedersen (bass) will handle all vocals from now on."

Mercenary will perform with their new lineup for the first time at the Shock Rock Festival on 12th of February, 2010.