Meshuggah “obZen” (Best of the Decade)

Meshuggah’s obZen arrived in 2008 at the 21-year mark in the band’s career, and after a flirtation with sampled drums and multi-tracking guitars on 2005’s Catchthirtythree, obZen’s decidedly brawny, blunt-force approach saw the band executing in the way they do best. There’s no way around the fact that this is the most all-encompassing, cleverly constructed Meshuggah album on the shelves yet. Polyrhythms and jagged math-metal are still the core foundation, strange experimental nuances still cover the soundscape, and Jens Kidman’s vocal delivery still spews as much piss-and-vinegar as ever. However, the album also embraces a subtle simplicity that adds new layers of tangible depth to the band’s suffocatingly abstract sound from the mid-2000s. Underneath the unfathomably complex rhythm work of Thomas Haake and the staggered guitar work, obZen relies on a thick groove and computer-precise communication to bring a cinematic dynamism to a band that was known mainly for how confusing they can be. Most tracks, such as opener “Combustion,” charge out of the gates with an unflinching ferocity, powerful riffs drowning the time-shifts from the mix. Others, such as “Bleed,” see the band exhibiting their progressive dual-guitar and mesmerizing psychedelic interludes right alongside the mechanized chaos. Hearing the final marriage of Meshuggah’s dualities seems to have fulfilled a destiny; obZen is Meshuggah at their most fully realized status yet, and it is an album that challenges every other metal band to match the fury of their attack even as we enter the new decade.

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