Such a disappointment from a band which started very promising and has currently ended up sounding weak, non-energetic and predictable, is something I personally refused seeing coming in the case of the Danish ex-industrial metallers Mnemic. I say ex because there is nothing familiar to their former sound anymore. And it is not that which brings negative feelings, but the fact that instead of reaching higher levels in their discography with each album, they have managed to achieve something quite seldom especially for newer bands, each album of theirs being worse than the previous one, considering composing ability and musical quality above all. Other circumstances always rely on each individual’s taste and I really found hard for them to repeat something as special, obsessive and fresh as their first almost monumental debut album ‘’Mechanical Spin Phenomena’’ when they became very soon one of the hottest names of the new metal scene.
The continuation was rather succesful with ‘’The Audio Injected Soul’’ and despite the change of vocalist, when the charismatic Michael Bogballe left and Guillarme Bideau joined the band, the band made another succesful album entitled ‘’Passenger’’. The changes started showing in Mnemic’s music, and the effort to try and finally succeed in opening the gates to the American market for them seemed the ideal one. But then came the previous album ‘’Sons Of The System’’ which started showing that things were going a little wrong for the band. It was not a bad album but surely lacked enough of the energy of Mnemic. For those not knowing or having forgotten, Mnemic stands for Mainly Neurotic Energy Modifying Instant Creation. There is no neurotic energy here to say the least, the main factor in the quintet’s music, with the crushing unstoppable sharpening riffs and the feeling that the walls around you move towards you in order to smash your face and just leave you a twisted mass of once a human being.
‘’Mnemesis’’ is an album with a great title which unfortunately doesn’t do justice for the band. If you look on dictionaries, the word nemesis means a rightful punishment done by an appropriate factor in the appropriate moment the most times. The highest way of justice being done against those who defy laws or other worths of life. There is no justice done for the band in this fifth album of theirs, in addition I dare saying it’s the album which marks a very dark and non-inspirational era for the band. From the beginning with the track ‘’Transcend’’, you get worried, you get a feeling that something ain’t going right. A bombastic opening with a heavy track was something somehow granted for a Mnemic album, this time the album opens in a very normal and uninterested way for a Mnemic fan. Not to mention that there is no chance for this album to bring new fans to the band, unless some may prefer it compared to their four previous ones as it is not that heavy and it tries (in vain) to sound succesfully commercial.
The album sound hollow, there is nothing that reminds of my once beloved Danish noisemakers, instead we have a shameful turn to something sounding cheesy American, without nerve, without identity and especially when they try to put some Meshuggah elements here andt there and what’s worse, ideas that wouldn’t even fit in some of Devin Townsend’s possible b-sides. However you look at it, you lose, total lose/lose situation for band and fans. And what’s even worse is that Bideau this time sounds non expressive and instead of giving the songs an extra boost with his voice, he buries the compositions even deeper and we finally have more than 50 minutes of tiring material that saddens me a lot.
I don’t know what happens in such cases but it’s one of the times i’ll be so strict because it feels like some limits have been pushed. It’s times when I wonder ‘’When the band composes such material, don’t they listen to what they create? And if yes, do they REALLY like what they have composed?’’… I can really find hard the fact that the guys in Mnemic really liked this tracks and this album in particular. Despite the cover which is really very good, I cannot refer to a specific song as something which brings light to the whole darkening result of ‘’Mnemesis’’. I could never imagine such a flop from a band which has made my neck get on fire hundreds of times the last eight years. Well, it’s reality and it’s very sad indeed. I hope they will get over this very soon and prove that it was a moment of no inspiration and unsuccesful experimentation. I’m really sorry guys but at this point, I have started sharpening my shovel and next time if you go on like this, I’m gonna bury you for real. At least make something like ‘’Sons Of The System’’ because to go more back than this, seems if not impossible, then very unlikely to happen.