Memfis - The Wind-up

*=Staff's pick	Breathless The Wind-up Forever Discounted Eternal Failure The Judgement Cover It Up Dead Ends* The Game* Stop Those Waves Save The Day* Breed The Disorder

Genre	Progressive Metal	Mattias Engström	Vocals
Tracks	11	Mattias Engström	Guitar
Runningtime	38 Min.	Johan Boqvist	Guitar
Label	Dental Records	Christian Öhberg	Bass
Release	06 Sept. 2006	Carl Johan Lindblad	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Opeth

The Wind-up is the debut work from one of Sweden's most interesting Progressive Metal act Memfis. Think of music such as Burst, Opeth and perhaps a slightly touch of the french band Gojira, then you got the essence of Memfis. Metal winded up with hardcore and experimental and progressive death metal. Perhaps I am a bit to conservative and reserved to be all enthusiastic about crossover music but the debut from Memfis seems very promising. The Wind-up is released through Dental Records, a new label that is a part of the Music Company Nordic AB.

Memfis' music dwells in some kind of slumber, always prepared to strike. Technical parts of booth acoustic elements and more meaner vibes is presented with the precision of a surgery. Beautiful harmonies and arrangements go hand in hand with more traditional music writing such as breaks, verses and refrains. Very skilled composing, I guess. Memfis don't give us any deadly attacks in speed or so, but their ability to make harsh and mean stuff out of ordinary themes, which at a first look seems to be directly boring, convinces me. Good composing once again. The almost ghostly spirit of Cover It Up sums up the atmosphere of the whole album very well, melancholic mid tempo metal that breathes angst. The thing that I don't like about Memfis is the fact that there are way too much of transportation during the songs, free from any obvious related aspects of the songs. It doesn't matter how good the voice of Mattias Engström is if it doesn't fill a purpose and is relevant. There are parts of songs on this album that feel directly over-worked. I realise that Memfis is a band with high ambitions but the smaller the better, at least in this case.

Besides the fact that The Wind-up has its grey zones, I think that it's a most promising debut. Very skilled and talented musicianship and innovative song writing. Some songs stand for extremely good, new thinking and really deliver, like Dead Ends, The Game and Save The Day. Well recommended to all of you out there that seek music with a deeper meaning. I won't go further into the band's political view or so but musically Memfis stands for a fresh breeze in the slumbering world of death metal contra hardcore. The Wind-up isn't a clean and easy album to comprehend and it demands patience from the listener due to the complexity of its music. But whats wrong with some serious thinking and reflection?

Production	Vocals	Compositions
6	6	7,5

Summary
6,5 chalices of 10 - Tim