There have never been more opportunities to go and see bands as it is today in Stockholm. Unfortunately the ones supposed to show up at the events aren't really that interested in these arrangements. Still, I thought this event would attract a lot more people than it did.

I tell you, it looked like a brick-game when the stage was rigged in prior to MACHINERY's gig. Twin-guitars, a big Ampeg bass-amp, a massive drum-kit and keyboards do NOT fit at the tiny little stage at Harry B James. This was the first gig with the new guitar player Kalle Stenberg (also in ALTAIR) in the line-up. With that arrangement Michel Isberg could focus on the vocals 100% and that was to the band's benefit. Well, musically at least. Normally the sound at a pub, even if HBJ is a quite big one isn't very good when it comes to a full line-up of Metal musicians but they actually managed to turn it in really good this night. It was a good balance between the instruments. MACHINERY sounded like a unit, tight and well played and that's a must to their well-written music. Mighty Waiting For The Wave followed by I Divine from their latest release The Passing (Regain Records) sat the highlight of it all and gave guitar player Mano Lewis place to shine. In fact, all the night through he served some seriously impressive guitar-work.

What about the visual performance then? First of all you need to be able to move to perform. The brick-game kept going during the concert Kalle and Mano managed to shift places in the front-line quite smooth and it was only the crowd that had to watch out for moving guitar-necks. Michel had his 2 sq feet to move on and when he stepped out of that little area bass player Peter was mashed into the amps and so it went the whole concert. It was only Fredrik (keyboard) and Johan (drums) that was safe behind their instruments.

MEMORY GARDEN released their new album, Carnage Carnival a little over a month ago and the reviews have been really good. The grades are absolutely fair; it is a damn good album. It's absolutely a step towards the top compared to Mirage and it was absolutely about time this band made a buzz around themselves because it was 8 years since that album was released. This gig, which has been rescheduled and postponed several times, was the official release-party for Carnage Carnival (Vic Records).

Even if MEMORY GARDEN got a little more space on stage it's wrong to say that they had a lot of room to move around on. But it is the small things that count and vocalist Stefan Berglund felt more in your face than Michel. Stefan dared to take the step forward over the monitors leaning out in the crowd. Well, I don't know if crowd is the right word because the bunch of Metal Heads watching MACHINERY became more and more sprinkling the longer the night went.

Normally bands first efforts are the ones best received but here it was the opposite. It was doubtless the songs from Carnage Carnival that got the best response and they are the ones most mainstream too. MEMORY GARDEN's first two releases are closer to Doom and Verdict Of Posterity and already mentioned Mirage are a lot more complex and angular and not very easy to access. And that reflected off on the crowd too and I understand that, if you haven't listened to this band before it definitely won't get stuck during a concert. I really like MEMORY GARDEN but I felt the same too, the whole spirit and energy died a little during this break from the new album.

As you might see Stefan said, we have a new guitar player and pointed to his left. We have added Ante (Andreas Mokeld) for the ethnicity. How much does that count for different origin but ok, Finland is another country... And then we added Johan for the age Stefan continued; bass player Johan Fredriksson looked a little humiliated but the comment brought on laughter. I still think MEMORY GARDEN did a really good gig, perhaps another mix in the set-list and something worthy of being called a stage will do the trick. But for what it was it was really good.

Still it's a shame that more people don't drag themselves out of the TV-couches when good music is served. Without doubt the 2008 releases from these bands will end up in my top 10 list of albums of the year and I bet more would feel the same if they just listened to the music.

(photos by carnage carnival Erika)

MACHINERY

MEMORY GARDEN