UMUR Passenger is the 3rd full-length studio album by Danish metalcore act Mnemic. The album was released in January 2007 by Nuclear Blast Records. Lead vocalist Michael Bøgballe left the band after the release of The Audio Injected Soul (2004) to devote his time to his family so a new vocalist has been added to the lineup for Passenger. Former Scarve vocalist Gillaume Bideau is the new lead vocalist and his entrance makes quite an impact if you ask me.

The music on the album is a hybrid of metalcore, thrash metal, melodic death metal and industrial metal. Soilwork, Fear Factory and especially Strapping young Lad/ Devin Townsend come to mind. The addition of a versatile vocalist like Gillaume Bideau to the ranks means that there is great variation in the vocal department. He can both deliver screamo vocals and several kinds of clean vocal styles too. He is such a great asset to the lineup and while I won´t say anything bad about Michael Bøgballe, there´s a world of difference between him and Gillaume Bideau. This has great impact on the quality of the music and when the instrumental part of the music has also gotten much more intricate and varied than was the case on the last album you end up with an album that can only be considered a success. To top it off the production is excellent.

The formula is still a bit generic at times but in the genre Passenger is probably one of the best releases I´ve heard yet. Catchy choruses, great lead and harmony vocals, heavy rythmic and at times pretty technical riffing, atmospheric synths, excellent musicianship and enough variation to keep my attention from wandering too much throughout the album´s playing time. One of the more generic features on the album are the screamo type vocals, which I find a bit tiresome, but fans of the genre will probably not agree in that assessement and I have to admit that they are not alltogether bad. Just not to my personal liking. There are some really great tracks on the album like Stuck Here, Meaningless and In the Nothingness Black but there are also a couple of tracks that I would label standard material. Something the band will have to work on for the next release.

Passenger is one of those rare albums, in a genre that´s usually not my favorite, that actually works for me. In a case like this it would simply be unfair to deny quality. And that´s what Passenger is. A high quality metal release. A 3.5 ( almost 4) star rating is deserved.

UMUR The Audio Injected Soul is the 2nd full-length studio album by Danish melodic death metal/ industial metal/ metalcore act Mnemic. The album was released in 2004 by Nuclear Blast Records. This is the last Mnemic album to feature lead vocalist Michael Bøgballe as he would leave the band after the release of The Audio Injected Soul to devote his time to his family.

The music on the album is a combination of melodic death metal, industrial metal and metalcore. Bands such as Soilwork, Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad come to mind, but Mnemic are not quite as original or unique sounding as their inspirations. The music is harsh with edgy razor sharp riffing and harsh vocals in the verses and usually melodic clean singing and harmonic chord work in the choruses. It´s very well done and sounds great most of the time but it´s hard not to call it a bit generic. The playing is tight and the songs are well written allthough they generally don´t stand out enough from each other. So while the original songs are enjoyable, it says a bit too much about the material, when the song I remember the best after listening to the album is the cover version of Wild Boys by Duran Duran.

The production is powerful and raw, but be prepared for a wall of sound and not much room to breathe.

The Audio Injected Soul is a solid and professional album by Mnemic and I´m sure fans of the genre will find it enjoyable. I find it a bit generic and miss a more adventurous and unique songwriting approach so for now a 3 star rating is warranted.

UMUR Sons of the System is the 4th full-length studio album by Danish metalcore act Mnemic. The album was released in January 2010 by Nuclear Blast Records. It´s the second album with French lead vocalist Gillaume Bideau behind the microphone.

The music on the album pretty much continue down the same path as the melodic death metal/ metalcore style of the predecessor Passenger (2007). The music is very melodic with layers of synths, sequencing, heavy chugging riffing and the clean vocals/ screaming vocals by lead vocalist Gillaume Bideau. I hear traces of Soilwork, Fear Factory and various Devin Townsend projects in the music. While all songs are of good quality and some of them have downright infectious choruses, I still think Passenger is the stronger album. It´s details though and if you enjoyed Passenger I´m 100% sure you´ll find great joy in Sons of the System too. In addition to the professional songwriting, the album has a polished and powerful production and add to that great musicianship.

Mnemic isn´t exactly the most original or unique act in metal, but what they do is done right, and that´s what matters the most when I evaluate artists. Sons of the System is another high quality release by the band and a 3.5 star rating is warranted.