Denmark's MNEMIC Challenges GOD FORBID To The Drinking Olympics

Who would've guessed that the day the "Revolver Presents: The Chains Of Humanity Tour" lineup with GOD FORBID, GOATWHORE, MNEMIC, ARSIS, and THE HUMAN ABSTRACT/BYZANTINE was finalized, a new (although already long-practiced) Olympic category was FINALLY made official: The Drinking Olympics.

Eager to take a gold medal home for his native Denmark in a competition that will begin on January 4, 2007 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and close on February 21 in Montreal, Québec, MNEMIC guitarist Mircea Gabriel Eftemie shares: "We are super-excited to be sharing the road with our good & crazy buddies in GOD FORBID! We toured the U.S. together last year with MESHUGGAH and instantly became friends after some heavy partyin'. We all know that [GOD FORBID drummer] Cory's liver is going to save the day for all of us! Furthermore, we are also looking forward to be hooking up with all the bands on this tour to crush the American soil and bring a very diverse and heavy package to all of you boys and girls that are fed up with the typical, pre-fabricated, mall-core bullshit that rules the planet these days. 2007 will be the year of the 'Passenger' for MNEMIC, and YOUR destination will be HELL if you don't show up!"

A teaser medley of "Meaningless", "In The Nothingness Black", "Psykorgasm", and "Pigfuck" — four songs from the new MNEMIC album, "Passenger", which is due out on February 6, 2007 via Nuclear Blast Records — is available for streaming at this location.

Regarding the recording of the new album, Mircea stated, "Warren Riker did an excellent job tracking drums for us, which meant the guitars HAD to sound great. The first couple of days we experimented with a bunch of different [amp] setups and heads — Krank, Diesel, ISP, and VHTs — not to mention a bunch of different string gauges because of our new and different tuning. We have been using ESP, Caparison, and Jackson guitars to make the sound more diverse in comparison to the last album, where we had just recorded everything on only one guitar."

Fresh off the Last Stab tour with labelmates SOILWORK, THREAT SIGNAL, and DARKEST HOUR, MNEMIC debuted their new lead singer, Guillaume Bideau (ex-SCARVE),to mass fan approval, though the band suffered a small live setback when Bideau fractured his kneecap in a freak accident that required a hospital visit. Photos from the tour and "Passenger"'s recording session can be viewed here.

Produced by FEAR FACTORY's Christian Olde Wolbers at Track Record Studios (KISS, MEGADETH, AEROSMITH) in Los Angeles, engineered by Warren Riker (DOWN, THE FUGEES),and mixed by fellow countryman Tue Madsen (HALFORD, THE HAUNTED) at Antfarm Studios in Denmark, "Passenger" features artwork by Asterik Studios (ANTHRAX, UNEARTH) plus guest vocal appearances by Jeff Walker (CARCASS, BRUJERIA) and Shane Embury (NAPALM DEATH, BRUJERIA). MNEMIC has also completed a video for "Meaningless" with Revolver Film director Patric Ullaeus.

The final track listing for "Passenger" is as follows:

01. Humanaut
02. In The Nothingness Black
03. Meaningless
04. Psykorgasm
05. Pigfuck
06. In Control
07. Electric I'd Hypocrisy
08. Stuck Here
09. What's Left
10. Shape Of The Formless
11. The Eye On Your Back
12. Zero Synchronized (Japanese Bonus Track)

Album artwork for "Passenger" can be viewed here.