Meshuggah: " Immutable"

They offer a different kind of pounding on the opening track, the robo grinding is sure to come, but the early reprieve is a welcome departure from their normal formula. They fall into grooves that groove rather than make you pull out a calculator to keep up with the math.  It's been six years since the last album which might have been the reset the band needed. At the time it came out I was a huge fan of the band's band's fourth album "Nothing:" and enjoyed "Catch Thirtythree" and "obZen" that followed. Then things begin to feel a little stale and the chugs began running together no matter how divergent they were. It is closer to business as usual for them on "the Abysmal Eye" that is Meshuggah being Meshuggah. 

Jens Kidman's militant bark, that comes across like an angry command rather than growling, is very consistent and continues to do what he does.  Where the band excels is the balance of atmosphere around the staccato chug of the industrial strength guitar. This is felt on "Light the Shortening Fuse".  The more palm muted passages of "Phantoms" create a tension gives the needed dynamic shift.  They shift the tension and groove it more for "Ligature Marks", It is evident by this point in the album that the band set out to do something different. Even they had begun to feel like something needed to change and it has for the better. They dig back into their more time-tested brand of heaviness with "God He Sees in Mirrors".  I hearing the bass distinguish itself from the guitars on this song.  For those of you who are here for the guitar wizardry the chaotic Robert Fripp like solo should impress. 

 The clean guitar that leads into the meat of "They Move Below" is even more impressive at it steps away from what you might expect from them. Those expectations are the boundaries the band broke from. When it does build into their heavier sound it flows rather than feeling like an obligation.  The roar of the cyborg churning of "Kaleidoscope" is more familiar territory. They hit you with a similar mecha-aggression but do so more effectively as songwriters on "I am That Thirst". The bring ambiance to the weighty throb of "the Faultless" which finds them appealing more to people who showed up for a familiar heavy, but not carbon copied from previous songs, the vocal arrangement does some interesting things, 

The more nuanced approach to the sounds they are bringing to the table does not mark every song. After repeat listens to "Armies of the Preposterous" and it still sounds like a a collision of steam rolling riffs for the sake of having them collide. Just past the midway mark of the song they switch it up a little but nothing mind-blowing. Cleaner guitar tones reemerge on the last song. It's a guitar centered instrumental that works more as an outro, which is a different way for them to end the album. I will give this album a 9.5, to grow on me, it's not a perfect album but it is the best I have heard from them in sometime and smart move on their part.Out April 1st on Atomic Fire.           

 

10.4