12/4/2023 0 Comments Meshuggah kaleidoscope![]() The lead single I Am the Thirst is an odd pick and probably the most unlike the rest of the album song. Aside from that, you’ll get the occasional lead guitar of Fredrik Thordendal strumming a little higher up, roaming around in no particular direction to add at least a little dynamic to the sludge. They follow the shake-your-head-at-how-complicated bass drum of Haake. Meshuggah is an enigma of incredibly unique evolving time signatures and straightforward concepts and riffs.Īnchored by a generational talent in drummer Tomas Haake, both rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström and bassist Dick Lövgren are completely playing in unison every song, every riff. Later, “Kaleidoscope” gives you more head-nodding grooves to sink into. For example, “Phantoms” might be the closest thing you can tap your toe along to without getting utterly lost. That said - there are some epic grooves that Meshuggah gets itself into. Meshuggah is an industry of serious progression. While comfortable in their collective skin, they continue expanding their reach by obliterating - hell, nearly swallowing - metal's genre boundaries in their long, relentless search for the undiscovered.A factory line of precise polyrhythms expertly hammering along with such unabashed disregard for structure. Ultimately, Immutable delivers the very essence of Meshuggah. It suggests an unseen yet keenly felt horror lurking just outside. It unfolds from its softly articulated sparse, harmonic melody into some hoary, cinematically obtuse, shattering, sinister anthem. It sets up the instrumental closer "Past Tense." It's nearly lyrical dual guitar theme is transformed through the rhythm section's ever-insistent prodding. ![]() "Armies of the Preposterous" is almost traditional technical death metal and heavier than anything here. ![]() "The Faultless" delivers angular, dissonant, guitar vamps in stop-and-start progressions, Haake's thunderous playing balances them, making the track virtually danceable. It's followed by the two-minute instrumental "Black Cathedral," a drumless yet imposing metal interlude that introduces "I Am That Thirst." This track's melodic lead frames an insanely catchy vamp from the rhythm section, which drives an old-school death metal attack. The call-and-response twin guitars and dirty, throbbing bassline create a concentric circular groove governed by Haake's swinging, syncopated kit. "Kaleidoscope" offers the nastiest guitar tones we've heard from Meshuggah since Nothing. While "They Move Below" commences as slow, melodic, and almost Gothic, it incrementally progresses to reveal monstrously crushing guitar riffs that recall Killing Joke on Revelations. Ultimately, it conjures five minutes of utterly aggressive, extreme metal. "God He Sees in Mirrors" offers shifting tempos as guitars and bass create shard-like harmonics and frenetic off-kilter riffs amid wildly polyrhythmic drumming. A series of detuned, ringing guitar harmonies foments a majestic bridge that feeds back into the chug and stomp, punctuated by bassist Dick Lovgren. Something this intensely profound/Can never be allowed/The fabric and all that holds it/Will all burn/It will all be torn down." Tracks such as "Light the Shortening Fuse" utilize massive circular grooves. "The Abysmal Eye" provides a classic, churning example of "djent" riffing, but is expanded on by the introduction of haunted ambience and layered atmospheric synths hovering around the guitars with Tomas Haake's polyrhythmic drumming framing Kidman's growl: ". ![]() The dual melodic yet angular guitar lead from Mårten Hagström and Fredrik Thordendal adds a perverse quality as Jens Kidman delivers an uncharacteristically restrained vocal in menacing, sinister tones. The staccato riff in opener "Broken Cog" is mathematically complex, almost industrial. It marks the contrast in production, composition, and guitar tones over a whopping 67 minutes, making it their longest album to date. Though their trademark sound remains instantly identifiable, Meshuggah creates deliberate tension between that trademark sound and an insatiable need to evolve musically. The COVID-19 pandemic started just before they began work on it, adding years to the process. That said, Immutable has been an unusually long time coming six years, in fact. It's typical for Sweden's Meshuggah to take several years between album releases. ![]()
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