#5: Meshuggah - 'The Violent Sleep of Reason'
I really had no intention of rating a 2016 Meshuggah album in a top 20, let alone a top 5, but the band even in its advanced age form probably dropped its best album yet. After hearing the first track, I thought it was just more of the same type of stuff they have been oozing out for years... but 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' does everything they are good at and exemplifies each aspect of their unique heavy metal sound. It is bolstered by a more live sounding, organic production style which allowed the band to shine and be as real as they possibly can be. And I am hoping that the reality they are reporting on is not this one. The lyrics are more ridiculous than ever, darker and more violent while being fully nihilistic and offputting. But the lyrics are sort of an afterthought when the music is this interesting and captivating. They have made super weird and abrupt sounding timing super catchy on this one, hook laden while still confounding the listener at every opportune moment. But the big surprise is all the hooky riffs and chops, which keep you coming back for more metallic punishments. This is a very epic sounding album and you can hear all the clockwork-like layers working together. But what really sells it all are the otherworldly solos, which are not only alien sounding, but are coming at you from a weird backwards parallel dimension. The first two tracks chew you apart, then you are left a discombobulated blob awaiting the rest of the album. You simply must see the album opener "Clockworks" drum playthrough. "Monstrocity" brings forth a more uplifting, bursting guitar line that will make your booty move. When it finally reaches a crescendo, a devilish guitar solo emerges while the riffs start to dance with you on a plateau above the clouds. It then gets super tight with obsidian black riffs while the solos then morph into stars shining down on your high rise rooftop trip. It then comes crashing down with some genius descending riffery that keeps going back up for more only to come down again. It then revisits the uplifting bursting guitar insanity. So not only are the riffs top notch, and memorable, the songwriting is perhaps better than ever for this band. Tracks like "By The Ton" are some of the heaviest shit you will ever hear. The title track is one of the best things they have ever written, a fully mechanical beast of brilliance. It is worth hearing just for the intro section! "Ivory Tower" gets a bit weirder, proggier. But still rather catchy. It doesn't get super weird and dissonant until you get bashed over the head with the "Stifled" riff... you'll know it when you hear it! This album is full of demonic glee. What a weird, crushing riff which ends in a super odd zigzag of hammerons and off time strangeness. The song then gives you an outro of crushingly beautiful ambient passages, like the northern lights going out after some form of nuclear war. After that little interlude of pretty music, the album comes back swinging with the absolutely demolishing "Nostrum". Link to lyric video here. Or maybe you want another drum playthrough with the legendary Tomas Haake? Nostrum contains fast mind bending solos and the full force of Meshuggah's sonic arsenal. It all weaves together nicely, even though they are very atonal on this particular track, leaving behind any worshipers of melody. The album then closes with a couple more tracks but the damage has already been done... and remembered, unlike many technical death metal albums, this one is full of memorable and interesting riffs and solos. They play enough with pacing and space, and interesting guitar effects and sound design, all the while playing this mind bending shit live in the studio, it is all very impressive and will leave you with a sore neck from headbanging to this off kilter beast. As one friend once put it, Meshuggah just dropped an album that makes everyone else look bad. You can stop your heavy metal band now. Meshuggah are the best. Especially when they end an album with "Into Decay". We're doomed!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorG.M. Bowles Archives
February 2017
Categories
All
|