Born in the south of Holland late 1992 and raised on the stages of the globe Mennen. A no-nonsense rock band with screaming guitars, pounding basses, kicking drums and powerful voices.
Mennen is a band that learned to play the hard way in the old fashion way. The first release of Mennen was self titled and the band got signed after the label T & T Records heard the first demos. Producer of the debut was Wolfgang Stach who would have major success in the 90s as the producer of the Guano Apes.
Mennen quickly returned to the studio to record the follow up Back to the real world. This album was heavier and as some say a little more dark. Experimenting with saxophones and steel guitars the album was received well. Mennen did a strong tour to promote the record and even scored a radio hit with the benefit single river of tears, to raise funds for the state of Limburg stroke by the heavy floods.
During the writing sessions of the new album Mennen grew apart from some of the original members. The bass player was replaced and they continued as a 4 piece band. The age of fools album was released and followed by an extensive tour through most of the gutters and typical places where you were not expecting electricity. To capture the spirit and energy they found back as a four piece band they decided to record a live album in the world-famous Biebob in Vosselaar(B). The millennium brought the new record, circle of live. This album opened up a lot of doors throughout Europe and the band toured in France, Portugal and additional shows in Germany, Belgium and of course Holland.
After what seemed as a long break Mennen returned stronger and better then ever with the album Freakazoid. Recorded in their own studio and mixed by Erwin Musper in the famous Wisseloord studios in Holland. Mennen toured again and although they changed of hairstyles and looks, they never changed their no-nonsense mentality.
2005 was the year Mennen set their sails to the USA. They continued their cooperation with Erwin Musper and recorded a new album with him. As Mennen was also playing a couple of club dates in the USA, they decided to record one of the shows. What resulted in the album Freakalive. And when the boys returned from their trip to the USA they came back with a live-album, a new studio album including 5:1 mix, a soundtrack for a documentary about the US music scene and a documentary about the making of Planet Black.
The last couple of months Mennen were negotiating for a new record deal. And we are happy to announce that Mennen signed with Armageddon Music.So that brings us in the year 2007... A year that will mark the waiting for Planet black and tons of other things happening for Mennen. In march they hit the mighty Paradiso stage in Amsterdam to be special guest on the Saxon tour. It was also the year of negotiatings for Planet Black and the right moment to release the album. It all took longer as expected, but arent we used from Mennen that it always takes a little longer? well now fellow planeteers a lot happened this year. We had the legal department of te labels and the band looking over and over again through the contracts. We edited the dvd coming with the album over and over again. Then when we thought we had a date it got postponed. All were focussed on Wacken as it would be planned to have the official presentation there.... Mennen did a remarkable show there as we know now...but wait first things first... Due to sickness of Alex we were forced to cancel most of the shows for the last part of the year and in the end t was all for the good cause. The news came after one of our famous bandmeetings. Not directly after but one week after. After a rocking career as guitarplayer of Mennen, Eric decided to leave the band. He decided that his path was going different and he no longer wanted to be a planeteer. So that is where the search started. We had some interesting people contacting us, big names, bigger names, new names, talented people, people with (sorry) no talent, moneyseekers, fresh talents too much and too many to mention. So that took a lot of time to find out what was going on or what was going to be the perfect solution for our trio around that period. Well people can say from myspace what they want...it is addictive, it is boring or adds something new to your world. In Mennen's case it brought something new. We happened to surf along the profile of an old friend... So what happened was that we decided to send a request with no idea if it would be an add or a dead... It was an add and not so much longer the first date was a fact... we found Gino Rerimassie, like Joss from Zinatra-fame. Not so long after a meeting was planned and the first sparks were there. Gino happened to be willing to step into Mennen and to prepare for the rocky ride towards Planet Black. More details will follow soon and of course there is so much to say about this new situation.... other news from te front is that Planet Balck will hit the stores 23 May 2008! buckle up it is going to be a rocky ride!