The Swedish Rock scene has over the years produced a large number of successful rock bands, and most important, Heavy Rock bands. The Awesome machine was formed in late 1996 by guitarist Christian Smedstrm and former bassplayer Stefan Magnusson, followed by vocalist Lasse Olausson and drummer Peter Thorne, finally deciding to form a band together. Tobbe Bovik took over the drum stool after Peter in march 98. Since their self-titled debut 10-inch vinyl was released in October '98, bass player and original founder decided to leave the band due to musical differences. His shoes were filled after auditioning Anders Wenander (a long-time friend of Tobbe) in December '98. Anders was actually the first one they tried out! With their background set firmly in the most heavy of legendary rock bands; they knew their direction immediately. Several compositions were already in the pipeline, and the new formed line-up shaped it all to their common taste of 1970's and 80s hardrock and rock'n'roll. Following almost a year of composing and rehearsing; combined with local club shows, TAM went to record their first full-length, its ugly or nothing, in Los Angered recordings with Andy La Rocque as the engineer and co-producer. The choice fell on ten songs, representing the bands background and direction, as well as their composing ability. The summer of 2000 was spent mostly on the road, including some of the big festivals in Sweden. In September 2000 a signature model by Eagle Guitars, designed by Christian, called "Awesome" was released. The rest of the year 2000 was spent on the road throughout Europe together with bands like Dozer and Karma 2 Burn. The follow-up, Under the Influence, was recorded at Nacksving studios, Gothenburg. This time they choose to produce themselves and the result, was released in early 2002. In May they toured for a month again, this time as co-headline together with Mushroom river band (with openers Pawnshop and Hoek). The reviews where overwhelming. In September 02 TAM went on a mini tour that ended in Erfurt as headliner for the 2 Stoned from the Underground festival. The autumn of 02 and spring of 03 was heavily spent in the rehearsal room, writing material for what should become the groups most well-written, well-played albumthe third full-length called the Soul of a Thousand Years (release November 2003). This time they made the final step out of the stoner genre and entered a more hardrock-metal oriented style with elements from psychedelia and folkmusic The recording was produced by Roberto Laghi, who has worked with some of the most successful bands from Gothenburg, and recorded at Oral Majority Recordings. In november 2003 the Awesome machine went on tour in Europe once again. This time without Lasse since he suffered from a bad throat infection. The replacement was Andreas Tomasson from the Gothenburg band Roach. The tour was a great success and after returning back to Sweden the three original members of the band got the striking news that Lasse would not be able to continue in the band. A big effort to find a permanent replacement was made and finally in February 2004, John Hermansen entered the rehearsal room and seemed to have done nothing else but singing TAM songs in his life! The choice was obvious after hearing him write some lyrics and melodies for a couple of new tracks. After releasing the first stuff ever with John behind the wheel, a seven inch vinyl on danish label Futhermocker Records (Demon King/For the Weaker Ones) and participating on a compilation CD (Burn the Streets Vol 5, Daredevil Records) with the song Gasoline, the band went out on tour, this time their fourth full-scale tour in Europe (together with finnish Mannhai). This was the real fire baptism for the new awesome lineup and with facts in hand, the choice couldnt have been more right... ...to be continued.
(From MySpace)
...It's Ugly Or Nothing (2006)DOWNLOAD
