UMUR "First Breath" is the debut full-length studio album by Danish metal act Mercenary. The album was released through Serious Entertainment in January 1998. Mercenary formed in 1991 and released the "Domicile" demo in 1993 and the "Gummizild" demo in 1994 before being signed to Black Day Records for the release of the "Supremacy" EP in 1996. "First Breath" features 11 tracks, but after the closing track "Sister Jane" ends there are 42 seconds of silence and then a hidden track plays. It´s the title track from the 1996 "Supremacy" EP in the same version as the EP version.

Stylistically the material on "First Breath" is a relatively varied type of death metal. It´s melodic but not melodeath, it features both brutal parts, melodic parts, and epic atmospheric parts (a few tracks also feature atmospheric keyboards), mellow acoustic parts, and also quite a few heavy groove laden parts. A couple of tracks even feature female clean vocals ("Horizon" and "Sister Jane"). On "Sister Jane" the female clean vocals (performed by Irene Poulsen) are the primary vocal style, but the vocals on the album are otherwise predominantly either growling or throaty aggressive shouting/growling. The latter vocal style has a semi-melodic sensibility to it, which works well for the band.

I´m not sure I would call the music style on "First Breath" original, but Mercenary still have a relatively distinct sound and writing style. The elements they use have just been used before and are recognisable. The material is overall well written and effectful and those who enjoy chorus parts featuring a feeling of epic release should enjoy that part of the music greatly. It´s well balanced music but a little more variation in pace would have made the album a more interesting listen. At little more than an hour of playing time the album is maybe also a little too long, when almost the entire album is kept at mid-pace.

"First Breath" features a well sounding production, which suits the material well, so upon conclusion it´s good quality death metal album featuring a lot of promise. It shoots in quite a few directions, but I don´t see that as a problem in this case, as Mercenary master the various stylistic elements and there is consistency in style and sound all the way through the album. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.