Meshuggah

Straight off the bat, this album reminded me of why I put on an In Flames album, it has all the right ingredients, heavy, diverse, bouncy, and catchy as hell, this is In Flames in true fashion. You know when you hear a track and you get that hit of nostalgia, remembering the first time you put them on and the reasons why you liked them in the first place? This is what I felt when I put this on, welcome to Forgone.

In Flames have now been around the scene for 30 odd years, I can only imagine what kind of pressure or strain that can put on creativity. There is nothing new here from them, it’s brilliantly performed riffage just like their previous albums but the biggest stand out is that it has a different energy to it. You know when you hear a track, and it just takes you back to being a teenager or whenever you first heard a band and you get that excitement? That’s what I got when listening to this. This is album number 14 for In Flames and I was just excited for this release as I was back when Come Clarity was released in 2006, and that was only from hearing the singles.

The album opener, The Beginning Of All Things That Will End, is incredible, I’ve always enjoyed their acoustic pieces and melodies, it was something different they used to do on older albums and they still do the dual guitars and melodies so elegantly, and it’ s only going to get better from here on out with Chris Broderick on guitar, damn that guy can play! Word on the street is, that he wasn’t involved too much in the overall album writing process but did sprinkle his flavour on solo’s throughout the album.

One of the singles, State of Slow Decay with its Straight Outta Gothenburg sound, just hit home. It sounds like they wrote it in a jam session with At The Gates, it has that old school melo death vibe. Anders’ vocals are the perfect mix for each scenario as always, laying down that killer melo death growl and then straight into those big chorus cleans. Listening to Pure Light of Mind, this song is an incredible song of light vs dark, it is well written and catchy as hell, a perfect example of how good Anders vocals really are.

Meet your Maker, another one of the singles released before the album drop, sounds like it comes out of Come Clarity era In Flames, I loved it, fast paced, melodic with that classic chorus hook that makes a single great! The single choice for Forgone was brilliantly chosen, I was excited to hear the rest of the album just from the energy of these first couple of tracks released.

With their upcoming shows at Knotfest, I am really keen to see and hear how these tracks go live. I can imagine songs like The Great Deceiver really getting that crowd moving with the opening riff and then into the stomping verse riff. Its been a little while since In Flames were here to bring the goods and with this new album under their belt, it’s gonna be one hell of a show!

The lords of the polyrhythm are back with their ninth studio album Immutable and even after 30 years, Meshuggah is still killing it and showing the world they can write some incredible music. Straight off the bat, from the opening track Broken Cog, you know you’ve put on a Meshuggah album, it's their sound, their riff style, you know it’s going to be good, and you know you’ll get what you want out of it.

This album blends amazingly, the song progression from track 1 to track 13, over 60-Minutes of riffing, flows like a river, Immutable is incredibly well written and produced, which you’ve come to expect from this band. This is the kind of album you should have on and listen to in its entirety. Whether the album lyrically is conceptual or not, I am unsure, but the music definitely sounds like it is or at least produced in a way to be cinematic or soundtrack-esque and even has a 9:30 minute instrumental, They Move Below, about halfway through the album. This song breaks up and revitalizes the album, flow, its starts slow and builds all over again to then bring you into Kaleidoscope which brings it straight back into the single string chugginess. On my first play-through of the album, I put it on and just listened without really taking note of a track change and then realised I was halfway through the album, it's just ebbs and flows in the right places.

One thing I have always loved about this band, regardless of what they are playing, you are always able to find the beat and headband along. These songs aren’t riddled with changing riffs, crazy interludes, or bridges, they are generally a couple of different riffs per song and then fleshed out with some lead work here and there. It really gives you time to enjoy the riff and get into the flow of the song, sometimes I find in prog metal that bands try and cram as many riffs into a song as they can and you get “Oh that’s a killer riff….. and it's gone” you don’t find that with Immutable.

The three singles released from this album, The Abysmal Eye, Lighting the Shortening Fuse and I Am The Thirst will give you a slight taster of the album, pretty good choices from Immutable to show off. The Abysmal Eye has a film clip that is visually stimulating as there is a ton of imagery flowing across the screen, vast deserts and of course, eyes everywhere. My favourite track off the album is Ligature Marks, this is ridiculously heavy and ambient. The repeating rhythm just hypnotizes you into head banging, you can’t help it.

Hearing this album, you can hear how Meshuggah have really paved the way for Modern Metal and their influence on the scene, whether the current bands are conscious of it or not. They are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to their craft and this album just further cements that in. I hope that by the time they get to tour this and even get to Australia, they are all fit and fighting, the drummer, and goddamn WHAT a drummer, Tomas Haake has been suffering from a skin condition that has caused issues playing but you wouldn’t even notice from listening to this. Meshuggah are unstoppable and Immutable.