SOEN unleash the crushing second single, “Mercenary”, from their forthcoming new studio album, “Reliance”, set for release on January 16 via Silver Lining Music.

With “Reliance”, their seventh studio album, the Swedish progressive metal powerhouse, spearheaded by Joel Ekelöf (vocals) and Martin Lopez (drums), continue to find incredible new pathways into the spatial areas between light and dark, loud and calm, heavy and soothing.

Honesty is what runs through the album’s writing, where emotional gravity and raw power coexist without compromise. It’s a duality that defines SOEN’s sound — the willingness to confront darkness not for spectacle, but for truth. Nowhere is that balance more evident than on “Mercenary”, a track that channels the weight of inherited violence and the personal cost of conviction with unflinching clarity.

“‘Mercenary’ is about the violence we inherit, which then sees hatred seeping into lives -and life- which in turn shapes generations,” comments vocalist and frontman Joel Ekelöf. “It also addresses betrayal, about how that can see us ‘crowning vultures into kings’”, furthers founding member and drummer Martin Lopez.

“At its heart, ‘Mercenary’ speaks to the cost of belief,” Ekelöf adds before Lopez affirms that “musically, it carries the essence of SOEN – heavy yet melodic and built on power and precision.”