{"id":6022,"date":"2012-06-05T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T00:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=6022"},"modified":"2013-06-01T15:59:49","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T15:59:49","slug":"album-review-mnemic-mnemesis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-mnemic-mnemesis\/","title":{"rendered":"MNEMIC – Mnemesis (2012) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

MNEMIC
Mnemesis<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNuclear Blast (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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If you are talking about bands that have had a rough few years, Mnemic\u2019s name will certainly pop up in short order. Mnemesis<\/em> is the Danish band\u2019s fifth album and on it they unveil a new second guitarist, bassist and drummer all at once, leaving only one original member; all of this coming not too far from the replacement of their original vocalist with Scarve\u2019s Guillaume Bideau. Consistency is hard to keep when personalities change, yet Mnemesis<\/em> is surprisingly cohesive although not near as groundbreaking as their early work.<\/p>\n

Mnemesis<\/em> opens with a bang with two of the three truly outstanding tracks on the album. \u2018Transcend\u2019 seems to tackle all the obstacles the band has had to overcome, establishing a firm musical base of American metalcore mixed with the band\u2019s Gothenburg-style roots. This is a current that will run throughout the album and shouldn\u2019t come as much of a surprise given the last couple of albums.<\/p>\n

\u2018Valves\u2019 is the song that takes me back to early Mnemic the most and is the album\u2019s highlight in my opinion. Guitarist Mircea Gabriel Eftemie makes you wonder here if he might, in fact, be the best kept secret in heavy music. The guitar work is absolutely stunning as one guitar keeps the grind and the other floats along in a very Edge (David Evans, U2 guitarist) kind of way; atmospheric yet grounded in a sensible melody that people can relate to.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s No Tomorrow\u2019 is a high point as well, rounding out the trio of outstanding tracks. The guitar work here, again, reminds me of bands like U2, Sense Field and Sunny Day Real Estate, but obviously having a heavier base to the songs. The vocals on \u2018There\u2019s No Tomorrow\u2019 really soar and add a very introspective feel to the song that might otherwise have been absent.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, much of this album walks on well-tread ground. Songs like the title track, \u2018Haven At The End Of The World\u2019, \u2018Blue Desert In A Black Hole\u2019 and \u2018Pattern Platform\u2019 are mediocre at best musically and the rest fares little better. Don\u2019t get me wrong, they are as solid as the majority of well-produced heavy music out there, but they fail to grab you in a lasting way. I can\u2019t help but feel that Mnemic leans way too much towards current trends here, which is tremendously unlike the band of the first two albums (2003\u2019s Mechanical Spin Phenomena<\/em> and 2004\u2019s The Audio Injected Soul<\/em>). <\/p>\n

Overall, there are some extremely bright spots here and no serious lows, but most of the album just sort of fades pleasantly into the background, failing to invoke strong feelings (either positive or negative). The three aforementioned tracks though give the listener something they can really deeply latch onto and for some that may be just enough.<\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MNEMICMnemesis Nuclear Blast (2012)Rating: 6\/10 If you are talking about bands that have had a rough few years, Mnemic\u2019s name will certainly pop up in short order. Mnemesis is the Danish band\u2019s fifth album and on it they unveil a new second guitarist, bassist and drummer all at once, leaving only one original member; all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[296],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mnemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6022"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12203,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6022\/revisions\/12203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}