Continuing
on from 2005’s immense yet rather sterile sounding ‘Catch
thirtythree33’, Meshuggah continue forth with their unique
brand of mathematical sledgehammer-core, seeking to cement their
status as tech-metal overlords. Although the band have stated on
previous interviews “that ‘obZen’ will be a collective
return to the band's past works, signaling a shift in direction
away from their previous math metal-laden effort, Catch thirtythree33”,
it does not completely veer away from this sound. Upon initial listens,
‘obZen’ instead proves to be a tempestuous display of
jagged tech-metal gone into overdrive. Tightly clustered drum and
bass clusters drop incessantly like some kind of infinite sonic
grenade attack, whilst lead guitar melodies tend to launch off sporadically
into warped neo-prog territory. The guitarists, Thordendal and Hagström
utilise custom-made Nevborn, and custom Ibanez eight string guitars
which add two low strings to allow the manically crushing riffs
to be played in even lower registers. Each individual instrument
is slightly out-of-sync and attempts to force itself in a different
direction, only to end up creating a fully rounded and complimentary
end-product which is teaming with molten-energy. Consecutive listens
however reveal the depth of the album as ‘obZen’ does
indeed return Meshuggah back to their song-writing core, and then
some! As well as producing a warmer and more captivating sound,
they display a keen sense of (mutated) melody and matured arrangement,
to create a consistently forceful album that keep the listener captive
and engaged at all times.
Throughout the
release, angular instruments collide in an accelerated and frenzied
fashion, continuously wearing down any defense the listener may
attempt to put up and pounding them into submission. The turbulent
drum, guitar and bass swirls seem like they are almost looped (which
is a formidable skill in itself) but they move progressively across
the sci-fi terrain in such an endearing and almost hallucinating
manner that it is difficult to resist anything other than diving
head first into the sound and nodding your head like a schizoid.
Jens Kidman abrasive throat-work is delivered with real menace and
is consistent in its delivery which really fits in with the musical
soundscape, although some listeners may be turned off due to the
lack of variation and human emotion.
On
the 7minute single, “Bleed”, the group open with razor
sharp machine-gun riffage whilst guitar and bass motifs meander
across the scales to provide perpetual energy to the track. This
theme continues throughout with subtle variations in both arrangement
and tempo creating real buoyancy to proceedings. After threatening
to do so for the last 5 minutes, the guitars finally move into an
Opeth-esque proggy black-metal workout towards the end before being
reigned back into an ultra satisfying tech-metal stomp.
Sounding similar to an irate KNUT at their most visceral, "Pineal
Gland Optics" grinds incessantly on a bed of psyched-out guitar
waft before launching into a pounding sub-machine gun riffathon.
Probably the masterpiece of the album, ‘Pravus’ sees
Meshuggah waste no time in setting upon the listener with a frenzy
of jazzed-out, tech-metal mayhem resulting in a really ugly, dissonant
soundscape of inside-out metal hurtling towards you at a breakneck
speed. On the lengthy "Dancers to a Discordant System",
Meshuggah move towards heavy-rock territory with a cryptic and dark
offering that moves throughout a number of genres. Initially, creepy
vocals crawl under your skin whilst the drunkenly arranged psyche-rock/metal
soundscape will leave you seasick and dazed. The track then moves
into more familiar territory with the grinding metal taking prime
position over the rock elements and the vocals moving back into
a harsh satisfying yelp. The finale then sees the band move into
a satisfying Nile-esque, metalized prog-work which acts as a great
closing passage for this album.
Tech-metal can
tend to be suffocating in that it can be a show of instrumental
dexterity over melodic composition. As mentioned above, ‘Catch
thirtythree 33’ did suffer from this but there are no such
problems with ‘obZen’. Although consistently hammering
in its delivery, listeners will never be left jaded as, refreshingly,
the tracks on ‘obZen’ never lie dormant. Just as you
think you’ve figured out a passage or you’ve locked-in
to a groove, they immediately switch into pastures fresh (and usually
far more heavy). Their sheer technical prowess is a force to be
reckoned with and will leave you enthralled for years to come, but
more poignant is their ability to fuse genres. ‘obZen’
succeeds in recapturing the glory of mid-90’s math-metal,
molding it effortlessly with stylistic elements of grindcore, noisecore,
neo-prog, heavy-psychedelica and math-rock and reshaping it into
something entirely their own. This release will be one of the strongest
metal releases of 2008, it will be a future classic and it will
elevate Meshuggah to the position of tech-metal overlords. (KS)
For
fans of: KNUT, Burn It Down, Red Chord, Ion Dissonance
Click
here to buy obZen
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