MESHUGGAH - The Violent Sleep Of Reason
October 5, 2016, 8 years ago
(Nuclear Blast)
Man, Meshuggah just never put out duds: the worst that happens is you’re just not really in a Meshuggah kinda mood when a new album drops. But I’m questioning why I’ve ever felt that way in the past as I spin this album’s opener, “Clockworks,” the song an absolutely killer seven-minute journey through all the twists and turns that this band have got nailed down so pat now, nine full-lengths in to a very respectable career. It’s got more life to it than I’ve heard this band have in a while, and that energy continues into the second cut, “Born In Dissonance”; even if neither of these songs are re-writing the Meshuggah rulebook—they’re not—they both deliver the expected sounds with an extra push that the best Meshuggah always has contained in it.
“By The Ton” is the best Meshuggah slow-burner in a while, the groove absolutely relentless. “Ivory Tower” shows Fredrik Thordendal laying down some great soloing over a machine-like labyrinthine groove that is positively Meshuggah, “Stifled”’s rhythm-section tightness is a wonder to behold, and “Nostrum”’s beginning of chaotic Meshuggah noise is a thing of beauty, creating a great mid-to-late album trio of tunes to remember. So, yeah: this is a Meshuggah album, and it's a damn good Meshuggah album.
