The fluidization of complex fluids is studied in the context of a Maxwell viscoelastic structural fluid model and compared to the purely viscous case. Solving iteratively the structural models together with the Navier
Stokes equation for the circular Couette flow gives spatially and temporally resolved velocity fields closely resembling those found experimentally for viscoelastic carbopol gels. Namely, transient shear banding is found during the initial fluidization phase. Although both structural models show transient shear bands, the viscoelastic one captures the experimental observations in greater detail, showing, for instance, the elastic backward flows during the transient shear band initialization stage.