In a new interview with MSN.com, drummer Tomas Haake of the extreme, technical Swedish band MESHUGGAH shares some insight into the expansion of the band’s sound and what they did differently for their eighth studio album, Koloss:

Q: ObZen felt like a combination of everything Meshuggah had done prior to that, but the new album feels like you’ve deliberately tried to expand your sound even more. Was this the case?

A: "We definitely pushed ourselves hard with ObZen too, but as you said maybe that one feels even more like a flirtatious thing with the stuff we were doing earlier on and the stuff we grew up with. I still feel there’s some of that on this one too, with the different tunings, and a couple of the songs are actually written for six-string guitar and not all of them being really down-tuned eight-stringed stuff. That’s definitely to get that old-school thrash vibe in there, even though the music is different of course. There’s definitely a little bit of that going on this album too. But apart from that we basically tried to create something that we find intriguing. We always try to find new ways of writing our own music so to speak, to see if there’s an additional lateral movement, a sideways step that we can take for ourselves to feel that we did something new with this one and that we pushed ourselves into doing something that came out cool and refreshing. That’s kind of what we always aim for, and this time it came out like this."

Q: When it came to writing and recording the album, was there anything else you did differently from ObZen?

A: "We didn’t mix this one ourselves, and we didn’t spend as much time in the studio because for ObZen we almost killed ourselves. We did things in a weird way, we spent too much time on vocals and stuff like that instead of going in and trying to get through the songs, have some good takes and not be too anal about everything from the get-go. I guess those are mistakes that we’ve learned over the years. It still ended up being a tall task to pull this one out of the hat, regardless, but it was definitely a smoother ride in the studio this time around than it was with ObZen. Of course with this album we contacted Daniel Bergstrand for the whole mixing of the album, and having him do that took some weight off the shoulders of a couple of the band members that are usually the ones that have to do that. He really brought out the organic sound of the drums too in a cool way.

The focus was less on the technicality of playing the drums, for example. It was pretty much the same amount of takes on this album as ObZen, probably an average of ten to 12, 15 takes for each song, and pretty much the same for the guitars too. There was definitely a certain amount of work put into it, for sure."

Read the entire interview here. Part 2 will be posted tomorrow.

Meshuggah will be taking their sonic arsenal on the road and detonating sound systems in cities across the US and Canada on The Ophidian Trek tour, which launches on April 29th in Houston. Direct support for all 19 shows will come from BARONESS; opening each night will be special guests and label mates DECAPITATED from Poland.

States drummer Tomas Haake: “We’re really stoked to be coming back again!! A new album and two really awesome bands to join us on our trek across the US and Canada!! There’s one word that comes to mind: Sweeeet!!”

Decapitated guitarist / founding member Vogg adds: “FUCK YEAH! Decapitated with Meshuggah! We’re so proud and happy to be part of this amazing tour! It will be a huge honor to share one stage with such a great fuckin’ band! Cannot wait!”

Tour dates include:

April

29 - House of Blues - Houston, TX
30 - House of Blues - Dallas, TX

May

1 - Emo’s - Austin, TX
3 - Marquee Theatre - Tempe, AZ
4 - House of Blues - Anaheim, CA
5 - House of Blues - Hollywood, CA
6 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA
8 - Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, BC
9 - Showbox Sodo - Seattle, WA
11 - Odgen Theatre - Denver, CO
13 - First Avenue - Minneapolis, MN
15 - House of Blues - Chicago, IL
16 - St. Andrews Hall - Detroit, MI
17 - Sound Academy - Toronto, ON
18 - Theatre of the Living Arts - Philadelphia, PA
19 - Palladium - Worcester, MA
20 - Olympia de Montreal - Montreal, QC
22 - The Fillmore - Silver Springs, MD
23 - Terminal 5 – New York, NY

Meshuggah will release their eighth studio album, Koloss, on March 23rd in Europe, and on March 27th in North America, via Nuclear Blast Records.

Drummer Tomas Haake and frontman Jens Kidman hosted a live Q&A; video session via uStream.com on January 24th to answer fan-submitted questions about the new album. A rebroadcast of the live chat can be seen below:

Meshuggah held a listening party for the album on Thursday, January 19th, in Fullerton, CA.

Haake, guitarist Fredrik Thordendal, Jens Kidman, and bassist Dick Lövgren flew in from Sweden to attend the event held in their honor. The evening’s guests were the first people in North America to hear the ten new tracks that comprise the band's eighth studio album, Koloss.

Video from the party can be seen below:

Koloss will be released as a CD digi, limited edition Magic Cube (CD digi plus DVD, exclusive to Nuclear Blast mail order) and two-LP brown vinyl. The album artwork can be seen below:

Koloss tracklisting:

'I Am Colossus'

'The Demon’s Name Is Surveillance'

'Do Not Look Down'

'Behind The Sun'

'The Hurt That Finds You First'

'Marrow'

'Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion'

'Swarm'

'Demiurge'

'The Last Vigil'

Meshuggah's last studio album was 2008's obZen. For more info visit the band on Facebook.