Mnemic - Passenger
86%
Biggest change is new vocalist Guillaume Bideau, who you might know from France's cyber-metalband Scarve. Bideau joined the group after Mnemic had to part with Tony Jelencovich, who again stept in because original vocalist Michael Bogballe left the band. Did it change anything? Yes it did! Bideau's capabilities definitely open up a whole new area. The use of melodic choruses expands the sound of the band in a positive way reminding me of some of the better moments of bands like Spineshank. The guy has a great voice for both screams and singing, his clean vocals still have that edge that make them cool instead of well, cliche.
Mnemic's polyrythmic-metal style didn't change all that much (read more about that in our reviews of their other albums) but it is clear that through the years the band's songwriting has become a more important factor. Whereas some of the songs on their first album might be based on crunching offtime guitarriffs, Passenger shines with songs with a good start, headbang-able verses and choruses that will get you to sing along. One of my main issues with The Audio Injected Soul was that it tended to drag on a bit, and on a first listen some of the tracks on Passenger might tend to sound alike (a lot songs seem to hoover around the same tempo), but it won't take much time before you'll be humming along just fine!
With Passenger, Mnemic manages to make their most coherent album to date; showcasing their musicianship and songwriting with excellent performances from all the band members. With the addition of Guillaume Bideau, the band took a step forward into a direction that can only get better!
.: Reactions
You have to login to react, click here to login or create a new account| Boek on Sunday February 11th 2007 21:21 |  |
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| hmm...never felt the urge to listen carefully to this album...I've heard some of the new vocals and I really gotta get used to it, too bad 'cause for me Mnemic distinguished itself because of Michael's vocals...maybe i'll give it another try soon! |
| Sledgehammer Messiah on Sunday February 11th 2007 21:33 Score: 86% | |
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| Totally agree with you on this one Carn, definitely their best album and they prove not to be a one day fly. Just hope that Bideau can bring this live as well, I was always a bit disappointed by the live vocal capacities of Michael and I wasn't stunned by Bideau when I saw him live with Scarve |
| Carn on Sunday February 11th 2007 23:46 | |
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there are some vids on youtube with him; mostly are low quality with crappy sound but there is nothing wrong with his vocals! |
| Mr Product 85 on Tuesday February 13th 2007 00:10 Score: 59% |  |
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| I haven't taken a good listen to this one, cause every time the chorus came up I skipped to the next song, hoping for some serious shit. But every song tended to look alike. I really hoped Mnemic would evolve into a bad-ass mature band, but they're only getting worse. They shouldn't focus on cheesy sing-a-long choruses, it makes me sick. Though I've got both their previous albums, I'll just turn my back on this one. Haven't got much hope for them left. Not to mention the really lame frontcover of this album.. sorry. |
