Head Charge

In 2007, American Head Charge released a DVD “Can’t Stop the Machine” with a CD containing live and unreleased songs. After that the band went quite for a number of years, and apparently drugs were to blame. Cameron Heacock, the band’s singer, was struggling to maintain balance between staying sober and creativity and the band decided to disband in 2009. But suddenly in 2011 Heacock announced that he’d be willing to continue with the band and the reformed American Head Charge started touring again supporting, among others, Mushroomhead and (Hed)pe. They have also recorded and self-released an EP “Shoot” to finally release a full album “Tango Umbrella” in 2016. In 2017 another tragedy struck the band – Chad Hanks, the bassist and a founding member passed away due to a terminal illness. I love AHC – their blend of industrial, raw sound, and a mixture of screaming and melodic vocals is just what your metal soul needs. And their life performances are always at a 100% of pure energy.

There are some bands that you’d like to go on and on. But then you hear that they’d split, and you think “Damn, why them?”. For me one of those bands is Mnemic - a Danish heavy metal band formed in Aalborg in 1998. Even though they do not play anymore I still go back to their albums often and I think it is worth giving them a listen if you’re unfamiliar with their music.

Their music can be described as metal fusion – aggressive vocals with melodic elements, technical guitars, bass and drumming. Original line-up consisted of vocalist Mark Bai, guitarists Mircea Gabriel Eftemie, Rune Stigart, bassist Mikkel Larsen and a drummer Brian Rasmussen. The original vocalist was later replaced Michael Bogballe. Their 2003 debut album “Mechanical Spin Phenomena” was released by the Nuclear Blast records. After another line-up change (bassist Mikkel Larsen was replaced by Tomas “OBeast” Koefoed) the band was touring Europe, providing support to, among others, Machine Head. In 2004, Mnemic recorded their second album The Audio Injected Soul. Their album got them some well-deserved recognition and put them on Roskilde Festival stage in 2004. For me one of the highlights on this brilliant album is a cover of Duran Duran’s “Wild Boys” – the 80’s classic in a very