THE WIND-UP

The Wind-Up is swedish metal band Memfis debut album. I have been listening to The Wind-Up for a while to make my judgement because one thing has been eating me up. Memfis has some obvious influences that are a bit too obvious IMO and I have been debating myself if The Wind-Up was really worth my time. I´ve come to the conclusion that it has been worth my time, but that I also think the influences are way too obvious and that Memfis needs to work on a more personal style. The situation is comparable to how Yes clonebands like Druid and Starcastle imitate their heroes.

Memfis heroes are clearly the swedish experimental Post/ hardcore band Burst which incidentally is one of my favorite bands. But the german experimental Post/ Hardcore The Ocean Collective ( or just The Ocean) is also a big influence. The music is very melodic yet brutal. It´s said in the biography of Memfis here on Prog Archives that the music is death metal which I don´t think is true at all. Yes there are places where I think that Memfis are influenced by Opeth but Memfis music is not Death Metal. Mattias Engström´s vocals are very brutal, but that doesn´t mean that this is death metal. I think I have made my point here, so I won´t bore you with more bickering about genres.

There are both growling and clean vocals in the music. The music is very dynamic and changes from beautiful melodic parts to more brutal agressive parts in varied tempi. The music is very diverse and no riff is repeated too much. All songs are good and memorable.

The musicianship is very good and especially frontman Mattias Engström seems like an accomplished singer/ growler. The music is pretty complex and it´s enjoyable to hear that the musicians masters their instruments.

The production is good but I don´t like the drumsound much. It reminds me of the drumsound The Ocean Collective has on their albums which I´m not too happy about either. Very german sounding if you understand that. I can´t explain it better.

The Wind-Up is a very good experimental Post/ hardcore album even though it´s close to ripp-of of Burst. I´ll rate it 3 stars because of the originality problems, but it could easily have been a 4 star album if Memfis had been a bit more original.

NOTE: If you like The Wind-Up promise me that you´ll check out these albums as well: Burst: Prey on Life, Origo The Ocean Collective ( or just The Ocean): Fluxion, Aeolian, Precambrian Breach: Venom