(Nuclear Blast) Total Time: 47:26
Third album for this “future fusion nu metal” hybrid.
MNEMIC (…taking its initials from Mainly Neurotic Energy Modifying Instant Creation ) is a Danish band which, having a huge support from it’s label, has achieved to be considered as one of the most promising upcoming bands in the nu metal area. However, with “Passenger” I feel that they flirt more with a step backwards than with one forward…
Firstly, they’ve changed their primary singer Michael Bogballe with Guillaume Bideau (ex-Scarve), a French guy that simply imitates the voice (distorted and clean…) of their former one. Ok, he is succeeding just perfect with that but surely this is not a step onwards! In addition, the new singer is spitting out his guts on and on, a fact that ends up a little bit annoying and boring for the listener’s ear!! In my opinion their new compositions have nothing more to give than their previous ones, having lack of variation, lack of memorable ideas and needless complexity which leads to boredom and to ear-overloading (!) in many moments of this release..! Only a couple of songs and some mellow choruses are rescued from this situation…
For someone that hasn’t heard about MNEMIC before I have to say that their “modern” nu-metal style has many influences from Strapping Young Lad, Meshuggah and Fear Factory. Their succeeding (?) formula is based on technical-groovy couple parts leading into mellow, american-type catchy choruses. I’m positive that the first one (couples) is the one that makes your head sometimes feel like your houses’ boiler!
The production of “Passenger” surely kills(!!!) and is made by MNEMIC, Fear Factory 's Christian Olde Wolbers, and Warren Riker (Down, Crowbar, The Fugees) at Track Record Studios (Kiss, Megadeth, Aerosmith) in Los Angeles. The mixing is done by Dane Tue Madsen (Halford, The Haunted) at Antfarm Studios in Denmark. What were we saying about label’s huge support…? "Passenger" features guest vocal appearances by Jeff Walker (Carcass, Brujeria) and Shane Embury (Napalm Death, Brujeria). The artwork is made by Asterik Studios (Anthrax, Unearth).
In conclusion I can predict that their fans will surely like this album although it’s much weaker than their debut "Mechanical Spin Phenomena"! However I’m not sure if the average heavy metal listener will do the same… “Meaningless” and “In The Nothingness Black” are the two songs that rescued just 2 points out of 6! Plus 1,5 point for the production so we sum up to….
