Meshuggah
Koloss

Swedish band Meshuggah are hailed as a fantastic bands by many, well acclaimed by metal reviewers and such. Their new album Koloss is no different from that, it has been well received by the press. I on the other hand has never been a fan of Mehuggah, I have always felt their music being too complicated for its own good, dull boring and vomitworthy rather than anything else. But one thing one can say is that this band certainly takes their time in finishing albums having seen four years pass since the latest album ObZene which was well received by our reviewer back in the day. And the story is the same looking at their history and realising this is the seventh album for them and 2012 happens to be the 25th year since the band started in 1987 and according to some they have reinvented themselves every time and for sure that is quite true as far as I am concerned I think they have as their albums always are quite different from one another. Still, their music hasn’t really interested me, but now then seeing it is their 25th year one can certainly believe that we will have one colossal album here.

Math metal is one phrase used in conjunction with this band, I am not really sure what that has to do with anything as math and music don’t feel too connected but sure there are some common denominators even though I feel it is still a term not really suitable for a musical genre but then again it might just be a way to describe a complicated form of extreme metal. Complicated, technical and atypical extreme metal is what it is, varied and complicated guitar and instrumental passages paired with a rather monotone singer called Jens Kidman who apparently has not relation to actress Nicole Kidman as far as I can tell. The drums are also rather monotonous if I am honest but still, you can hear that there is a lot of thought behind the music and it requires an active listener and doesn’t seem to be geared towards the youtube/spotify generation of today but then again which good music is? The production is close to perfect giving a powerful yet dynamic sound to the ten tracks and 54 minutes of minutes of music.

I can start by saying that for me this is the best album I have ever heard by Meshuggah, although I realise that as I have disliked all other I have heard it may not be that much of a thing. But I would say that the overall impression is on the positive side, slightly on the positive side as it is a bit of more of the same as well as being something slightly different. I think that the first track called I am Colossus is a brilliant track and the nice calm ending track called The Last Vigil is a great song and ending. In between those we have typical Meshuggah music that is sort choppy, and slow moving many times not really getting anywhere and if it is getting anywhere it is loosing its mind into a guitar masturbation that feels sort of disconnected from the rest. But I don’t know it has valid points that makes it bearable throughout the songs which is different and in the end I am as I said somewhat positive towards this Koloss of an album.

I see the appeal in music like this, I do not share the like for that appeal but it is journey that is fascinating at times, dull at times and in the end becomes rather good. The mathematic side of things seems a bit lost on me but nonetheless I can acknowledge that it is a brilliantly well made album but in a way it like an Audi, it is brilliantly put together but you really don’t want to own it, of course for different reasons as Audis are driven by cocks and Meshuggah’s music is made for a certain type of people to whom I do not belong. No matter which complicated ways I loose my mind into and loose track of what I was saying much like listening to this album, I can still acknowledge that it is a good album but it is also the same as Meshuggah has always done so if you have liked them before you will like them again and if you haven’t you probably will not deviate much from that conviction either. But still, it is the best album I have ever heard by Meshuggah and that is good enough for now, in four years they might make something even better.