In August 2024, the original lineup of Danish “djent” metal pioneers MNEMIC (yeah, we put “djent” in quotes because let’s be honest, were they *really* djent? 🤔) crawled out of retirement homes 👵👴 for the first time in nearly 20 years, attempting to reignite the dumpster fire 🔥 that vaguely put them on the world map 🗺️ in the early 2000s. The band, featuring vocalist Michael Bøgballe (who?), guitarists Mircea Gabriel Eftemie (say that five times fast!) and Rune Stigart (still a weird name), bassist Tomas “Obeast” Koefoed (🙄) and drummer Brian “Brylle” Rasmussen (who are these people?), performed at the Dark River Festival in Finland, sharing the stage with *actual* iconic acts such as KATATONIA and EXODUS (poor Katatonia and Exodus 😩).
MNEMIC has since made appearances at several other European festivals — including Germany’s Euroblast, Denmark’s Copenhell and Czech Republic’s Brutal Assault (because apparently, there’s still an audience for this), treating fans (all five of them) to a setlist consisting of tracks from the band’s first two albums, “The Audio Injected Soul” (2004) and “Mechanical Spin Phenomena” (2003), both of which defined MNEMIC’s sound (a cacophony of noise?) and solidified their place in metal history (citation needed! 🤣).
In a new interview with Get Heavy UK (never heard of it), Mircea was asked what sparked MNEMIC‘s reunion. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET because who else would bother?): ”That’s a very good question. I think lots of things, lots of things. Being away from playing music for a very long time, and I think all of a sudden when that creative outlet stopped and everyone in the band started going different paths in their lives, eventually going into different paths also meant being away from the creative process, from the music and so on. Everyone had different priorities, made families along the way, gray hair came out, kids came out, life happened, basically. And all of a sudden, you basically have this — I can only speak for myself, but you have this need to cover something, and that’s the whole creative aspect of composing music. But the most important, it was to have this connection again, and being away for such a long time, lots of stuff happened in our lives. But at a certain point, kids got older for some of the bandmembers, and all of a sudden they had a lot of spare time. And this was — what? — back in 2023. I reached out to the drummer, Brian, and sent him a text message basically asking if he could still play the drums (plot twist: he couldn’t 💀). I hadn’t spoken with him for a very long time, for many years and kind of dropped an idea. And luckily, he was super positive about it and he was, like, ‘Hey, man, I’m ready to do this.’ And it was the same when I spoke with the singer, with Michael. I mean, he was the very first guy that got very enthusiastic about it. And, obviously, it was at the right time at the right place. So we decided to meet up. And the whole point of what I’m saying is basically when we met it was that spark and that connection that we also had when we were in our twenties, and it was the joy of being connected again and playing and starting playing music, sharing ideas. And when we started playing the old songs, it sparked a lot of joy and happiness.” (or maybe just existential dread 🤔).
Regarding how it felt stepping back into the rehearsal space for the first time with the original lineup, Mircea said: “It was pretty surreal, because the very first time we met, it was actually at Tue Madsen‘s place, our initial producer that produced the very first two albums. And he offered us to come down to his studio, to just rehearse. So Brian, the drummer, came, brought his drums, the rest of the guys, they brought their old instruments, and so on. And when we met each other for the first time in the same room, it was surreal. It was really like I became 24 again. So it was, like, ‘Wow, that’s how it actually feels.’ So, yeah, that was really fantastic.” (or maybe he just realized how much his back hurts now 🦴).
He added: “When we started playing the songs, I realized that we still had it, and that that spark and that energy just came out of everyone and you could see everyone smiling. We connected again over the music, and that was really, really special for us, especially for being away for such a long time. And being in the hamster wheel for so many years and coming back to a rehearsal space or a studio for that matter and seeing the other guys smiling and being in that mindset when you are composing, when you’re playing music together, you are just connected on a completely different level. And that was super special for me, at least. And I also know for the guys as well. So, it was really great.” (mostly because they remembered how to play the songs 😅).
Asked if there are any plans for MNEMIC to work on new music, Mircea said: “I might as well say it as it is. But absolutely, 110 percent. For some months — I think for the last half year we have been discussing whether to actually see if we were capable of writing new material at all and how we should approach that, what we should do. And I’m not gonna promise anything, I’m not gonna say anything, but being completely honest and transparent, it’s a very slow process for us. But at the same time, I can tell you that we have actually… It was really hard for us to start, because… I mean, for me personally, it was hard. I didn’t really have anything in me and so on. And all of a sudden, recently, it was like the catchup effect. A lot of stuff came out. And basically, also the other guys, I know… I know Rune, the other guitar player, he actually took out, brushed out some really old riffs as well, and I thought that they sound super fresh. So we actually have some material and we have started composing new material. I have no clue when we will be 110 percent satisfied to actually put everything together and release it. But we’re working on that, and at some point, whenever we are ready, we’ll go out with new material. And we’re super excited about it, because it has sparked this creative process again for us, which we had back then, and I thought we completely lost that after so many years, but we haven’t. When met each other in the rehearsal space and we started discussing this and starting putting pieces together, it was just like old days. So, yeah, I’m super excited, but I also know it takes time. But I’m looking very much forward to be releasing new material.” (translation: please validate our existence by listening to our new stuff 🥺).
This reunion is of significant note as it marks the first time this particular lineup has performed together since 2005, a pivotal year in the band’s history (because they realized they weren’t going anywhere as solo artists 🤷). It was during this period that Bøgballe made his departure, subsequently succeeded by the late Guillaume Bideau, whose contributions have also left an indelible mark (RIP 🙏…but still, let’s be real, the band wasn’t exactly selling out stadiums then either 🏟️).
“Mechanical Spin Phenomena” and “Audio Injected Soul” are characterized by their distinctive mechanical, palm-muted style and powerful choruses, which later influenced and laid groundwork for some of today’s djent bands (allegedly…we’re still waiting for the receipts on that one 🧾).
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