Meshuggah are not, nor have ever really been, your average metal band. Their last two outings, 2005′s “Catch 33″ and 2004′s “I”, were so focused on showcasing the band’s technical abilities that it seemed that all emphasis on typical metal song structure was swept away. But Meshuggah couldn’t really care about that. They make music that challenges convention and structure. Practically impossible to categorize, and literally impossible to dance to, but that’s why they are awesome.
Obzen (a play on the words “Zen” and “Obscene”) is altogether different from anything they have done in the last decade. The opener “Combustion” has an amazingly playful riff that leads into total speed metal anarchy. From the get-go, you can tell this in going to be something special. Songwriting drummer supremo Tomas Haake’s return to the drum kit after using the infamous computerized “Drumkit From Hell” on “Catch 33″ is introduced with some of the most fucked up beats you have ever heard on a metal record. “Bleed” has an ear-pounder of a riff that allows Jens Kidman to basically rape your ears with his vocals. Then the rest of the album is really a bit of an anticlimax. Title track and “Dancers to a discordant system” offer up some new cheeky riffs and ideas that make them stand out amongst the madness. Little tweaks of new ground are broken, even so much to say that the tempo often stays the same long enough to allow for a headbang-worthy beat, but this is the same old Meshuggah. They will win over no new fans because there are no compromises. This album sounds a lot like a re-working of 1998′s essential Meshuggah album “Chaosphere”, so much so that the final tracks here sounds very similar to “The Exquisite Machinery of Torture” in terms of Kidman’s whispered vocal/death rattle screaming.
The key to loving Meshuggah is to understanding that they are unlike any metal band out there today. Jazz influenced solo’s are prominent throughout all their albums, the riffs are hypnotically repetitive and the lyrics concern paradoxes, life/death, duality, 4th dimensions and spasming. They are not a band which can be danced to nor sung along with, the music is very personal and you get out of it what you put into it.
Obzen is a good, strong, and thankfully a relatively “normal” Meshuggah album. It teases you a bit as it offers up new ideas only to take them back behind what must be described as fucking harsh to play riffs which the band are known for. It is indeed better than anything they have put out this decade, but from the brilliant artwork adorning the cover (an androgynous being in the zen lotus position covered in blood) and the opening brilliance of the first song as well as a couple more, I expected something a bit different and felt a tad dissapointed. Buy it, put it behind “Chaosphere” and “Destroy, Erase Improve”, cos it’s not as good as these but better than the rest. And so far the best metal album of 2008.
