Have you ever listened to a CD that starts out awesome, then sloooowwwwllyyy degenerates as it goes on, just a little with each song, and then the album ends with a fucking DURAN DURAN COVER? This is one of those albums.

Mnemic is a band known for trying as hard as possible to rip off Fear Factory without falling into the same stylistic trap that Fear Factory have, and they seem to have succeeded, since nobody in Fear Factory would be stupid enough to suggest that they cover Wild Boys to finish off an album. Hell, according to a Duran Duran fan I know, Wild Boys isn’t even a GOOD Duran Duran song- it’s overly pretentious, nonsensical, and just a flat-out waste of disc space. Luckily, that describes Mnemic’s cover of it perfectly as well, so I won’t have to bother describing it myself. I myself was a big fan of Mnemic’s last album, and so I wondered how this one would hold up. Presto, tis the sophomore slump for sure.

The production on this CD is, surprise, most awesome. Guitars are crisp and crunchy, keyboards are suitably in the background and they don’t sound like cheap Casio keyboards, drums have an a strong presence when the drummer is drumming and not half-asleep, and even the bass isn’t neglected. There’s this whole big hype about the ‘3 Dimensional Sound’ technology Mnemic used for this disc, and it really makes the shitty music sound golden. Essentially, the production is great, to sum this paragraph up.

The vocals are great as well, somehow reminiscent of an enhanced Bjorn ‘Speed’ Strid from Soilwork. The clean vocals are great when used correctly (Dreamstate Emergency, Door 2.12) and shit when used incorrectly (Just about every other song with clean vocals). The lyrics are very… strange. Half mallcore angst lyrics and half whatthehellwasthisguyon lyrics, as demonstrated in such overly bombastic (read: worthless) songs like Sane vs. Normal. The main problem with the vocals is that it feels like they recorded this whole thing in one take, and the vocalist just got more and more tired as they went on until he wasn’t even paying attention to the crap that was pouring out of his too-talented-for-this-band mouth.

As stated before, the album starts out strong, with Dreamstate Emergency, showcasing a catchy competent Fear Factory rip-off machinegun riff before leading into the first verse. Now, there are a few elements to ripping off Fear Factory successfully. Firstly, you need a versatile vocalist who can sing beautifully and do some half-death growls on the side. Mnemic is covered here. Secondly, you need to write an extremely catchy opening riff and repeat it maybe twelve times. Mnemic got this part right too. Finally, you need an infectiously great chorus that just BEGS to be sung along to, and Mnemic nailed this one down. Dreamstate Emergency’s chorus, though lyrically immature, is delivered with real soul and feeling, and when nobody is listening, I sing along, horrifically off-key. You will too. The best song on the album, really. It’s one of those songs I could listen to over and over.

The second song, Door 2.12, is still strong in the Fear Factory rip-off sense with an aggressive opening riff and a first verse delivery that just screams Soilwork with its finesse and balanced brutality. Unfortunately, the chorus makes no sense whatsoever. What the fuck is Door 2.12? Why does the sun never shine behind it? Why should I care? The song really gives you no reason to care, though it is still one of the top three songs on the CD. Not as good as Dreamstate Emergency, but definitely worth listening to.

On to song three! See, this is where you see Mnemic degenerating. The chorus is total mallcore/emo/pseudo-goth ‘I cut myself’ bullshit, and the vocal delivery is getting lamer and lamer. The drums pound nicely, but the guitars just churn on and on and on and on until you want the song to fucking end before you throw the disc out the window. There is a nice moment somewhere around the latter half of the song that reminds me of Door 2.12. If you really really like Fear Factory, listen through this one too.

Deathbox is a return to the Dreamstate Emergency mindset, thankfully. No, the chorus isn’t as good; yes, they drag that riff around for far too long; no, the drums are really that lifeless; yes, the vocalist sounds like someone let him take a thirty-minute rest. It’s the last really good song on the album.

Sane vs. Normal is complete fucking crap. The song it most reminds me of is Pantera’s Good Friends & a Bottle of Pills, and that’s no compliment. Inane spoken parts are overlaid on repetitive, boring riffage, and lifeless vocals with drums kinda just being there for the hell of it, not really adding anything to the damn song. Good thing? It’s less then three minutes long, just like Good Friends & a Bottle of Pills.

Jack Vegas has a moment at the beginning that is almost its saving grace, but the opening riff sounds like the main riff from that recent radio hit, Skindred’s Nobody. Then it leads into a boring middle section that reminds me of All Hail The New Flesh off of City minus 99.999999999% of the intensity that made that song one of my favorites ever written. Of course, the chorus makes no sense and I’m beginning to suspect one of two things regarding this band’s lyrics: either they’re engineered to make no sense, or they’re projecting themes that rush way over my head. Well, I don’t care either way, and this song sees an unwelcome return to the lame spoken vocals of the last song. Whee.

Mindsaver is next, and its shit. The riff has no energy whatsoever and sounds like a Soilwork riff off of Natural Born Chaos, the keyboards play irritating sounds that add nothing to the atmosphere, and the vocalist at this point is just dialing in his whole performance. Proof? Listen to Dreamstate Emergency, and then listen to this. I win. This one is mediocre enough to warrant a listen, if you’re determined to get as much value as possible out of the CD.

Overdose In The Hall of Fame not only has a lousy title, it’s a pretty damned lousy song as well. It rushes out of the starting gate with industrial sound samples that I’ve heard somewhere else, I just can’t place where. This song sounds like it was composed to fill some sort of imaginary checklist. Soilwork riff as drained of vitality by expert Fear Factory copycats? Check! Formulaic chorus that makes no sense? Check! Phoned-in distorted vocals? Check! Boring drumming that makes you want to hire a hit man to threaten this drummer? Check! Mallcore lyrics with a healthy dose of nonsense? Check!

The last song that I will speak of is Silver Drop, a bitterly offensive retread of the better songs on Digimortal, which means ‘the worst-ass songs on any compilation of halfway decent songs.’ I mean, at this point, are you even reading the review anymore? I could talk about clowns shoving peanuts up their noses at this point, because you all saw where the review was going after the first few sentences. Anyway, the song sucks and the industrial sound samples suck and the drumming sucks and the vocals suck and the lyrics suck and essentially this is one giant vacuum of suck.

If you think I’ll actually lower myself to attempting to describe the utter utter utter UTTER shit that is the last song, you’re kidding yourself.

Mnemic’s The Audio Injected Soul is a thoroughly boring and unpleasant experience. Admittedly, I love the first song and enjoy the next three enough to rate this a 54, plus three extra points for the production and two extra points for the vocals in the first few songs, and minus two points for COVERING A DURAN DURAN SONG.

I do not recommend this album. However, I recommend that you download the free songs on the Mnemic website and buy their last CD, Mechanical Spin Phenomena.

I hope for better things in Mnemic’s future.