Swedish metal band Meshuggah, for those not in the know, have been at the forefront because they know how to construct the most mind-bending songs, indestructible in their use of riffs, wildly (thought to be) impossible drum patterns and unassailable growls.
But they’ve been around since 1987. When you’re closing in on three decades as a band and have members in their mid-forties, it is right to assume that age can have its affects. Especially for the kind of music they play, it is safe to say that writing (and playing) the fastest rhythms in a complex time signature can become challenging as they grow old. It is something the band has admitted to as well, but then again, on their eighth full-length album The Violent Sleep of Reason , they seem to have done the opposite of what old people do – they’re not slowing down, they’re picking up the pace.
The Violent Sleep of Reason feels like being on a roller-coaster ride into the abyss, with guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström driving the eeriest dissonant guitar leads over pillar-strong riffs. But if you are looking at the effects of age on musicians, it begs to ask just how drummer Tomas Haake is sitting on the throne and still crafting insanely fast drum rolls at his age. He has shown signs of difficulty at their live shows before and expressed how some Meshuggah songs are just too difficult to play live (we completely believe them on that), but on this album, it is very apparent that Haake is bringing his A-game.
Straight off, ‘Clockworks’ begins a listening experience that baffles right from the start, monstrously thick guitars filling the space as vocalist Jens Kidman roars. ‘Born In Dissonance’ is a shorter song, nearly deliberately created for radioplay because it succinctly captures the perfect Meshuggah song, even if it sounds all too familiar to long-time fans. ‘MontroCity’ piles up the dense grooves, while ‘By the Ton’ sounds much more hypnotic, with its use of a phased-out lead. ‘Nostrum’, their second single, similarly takes the trip into a chasm of grooves over intricate drum fills.
Of course, The Violent Sleep of Reason will amaze the die-hards throughout, but it is still a trek in understanding the intricacies of Meshuggah’s brand of metal for others. The title track, for example, has everything from the perfect solo-on-steroids to a time signature that will have all the geeks smiling. And for the rest, the album is still something you won’t stop nodding along to – as long as you catch the right time signature, that is.
