Only recently I had the pleasure of discovering MNEMIC, through receiving a reissue of their debut album. This time around, their second release, "The Audio Injected Soul", came my way. Released but a year later, in 2004, it carried over most of the sounds and vibes present on the debut juggernaught, but perhaps more accessible, inclusive of a greater array of catchy passages, a slightly more polished production. More noticeably, though, it appears to have dropped most of the Industrial sounds completely, focussing much more on thrashier attacks, glistening melodic runs and stupendously chunky grooves. It also features the band's major breakthrough into the US, and is the last album of the band to feature former vocalist Michael Bøgballe.

While purist fans (as I have noticed) tend to put the debut album on a pedestal above the rest of their career, I can't help but notice how superior "The Audio Injected Soul" comes across. The opening track, "Dreamstate Emergency", attests to this off the bat; packing more of a punch and exploding with more 'boom', particularly due to the deliciously-growly riffs with the bass held high in the mix. With the chugs left to hang in the air, the reverberating "vwhoom" left over after each downpick adds an expansive dimension of heaviness that I barely noticed on the previous effort; a sound that populates much of the later MESHUGGAH albums. Like a bold colour, little details like this truly make the album 'pop'.

In tracks like "Illuminate" and "Jack Vegas" I can hear blatant FEAR FACTORY influences, and what an incredibly remembrance it is; a futuristic- sounding bombast of Groove Metal tickled with a little melody and soaring choruses. Perhaps my favourite track on the album, "Overdose in the Hall of Fame" is certainly one of the band's best, if not -the- best, songwriting efforts in the earlier part of their discography. "Wild Boys" ends the album on a fun, pumping, arena-themed anthem of heavily Metalcore-infused power.

With the word hiatus seeming more like a fizzled-out breakup at this point, albums like this make me wish the bands that made them still existed.