My Week in Music (8/4-8/11)

Relatively New Album Review

Meshuggah: Koloss (March, 2012)

Meshuggah is not a band for the faint of heart or for those interested in normal musical structure. Often considered a 'mathematical' band by many, due to their obsessive dedication to detail and perfectionist repetition, it can take the unfamiliar aback to hear a Meshuggah song.

The timing is often strange; a world where the number four is not a common reference point for executing repetitive beats, riffs, and hooks. But the lead singer, Jens Kidman, also approaches his screaming lyrics as if a deranged lounge singer. His voice doesn't follow the music, it simply narrates over it. For the uninitiated, this can sound like the singer recorded his vocals over a different music track and the producers messed up. But this isn't a mistake: this is just a style choice.

So if you've never listened to Meshuggah before, you'll probably hate the opening track 'I Am Colossus', in which Kidman tells his story over crushing and seemingly 'out of sink' musical instruments:



The rest of the album messes with structure a little less but may seem a bit off to newbies. For fans, and I am most definitely a HUGE one, Meshuggah's newest album is showing off the band's best qualities (crushing metal) with a slower pace, going for atmosphere instead of violence. The previous Meshuggah album, 'ObZen', was not my favorite as I felt like it was more of the same. Koloss is a whole new animal.

The best track on the CD, for me, is the just-under seven minute speaker-destroyer called 'Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion', which erodes the eardrums with repetitive crunch and downright nasty, consistent vocals. The music video is below:



At only ten songs, Koloss keeps popping into my car and in my stereo at work. I can't seem to quit it even when I want to listen to something else. The tracks 'Don't Look Down', 'Swarm', and 'Demiurge' have threatened to eradicate my car's speakers as I've dived deep into the darkness. If you like to expand your metal horizons, check out Meshuggah's Koloss. You won't regret it.

***

My Top 10 Most Listened To Songs of the Week

1)Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion, by Meshuggah.

2)Phantom Antichrist, by Kreator


3)Recharger, by Fear Factory

4)White Flag, by Glass Cloud

5)Oroborus, by Gojira


6)Hellraiser, by Motorhead

7)Rise to Ruin, by Gorefest

8)The Carbon Stampede, by Cattle Decapitation

9)Wanderlust, by Baroness


10)Indians, by Anthrax