Kev Rowland

When one buys a Meshuggah album one knows exactly what to expect, and this 2016 is no different to the ones that have come before. What we have here boys and girls is djent, but in a complex downtuned and aggressive form like none other. It is just not possible to state how brutal this album is, from the very first crunch to the last. Singer Jens Kidman has a great deal of work to do to make himself heard, as the rest of the guys are just so tight, so precise, that it is incredible that he manages to find a melody line at all. This is complex stuff, and no-one does this style of music better than the Swedes. True, they are somewhat lacking when it comes to dynamics, as there isn’t a great deal of light to play against the shade, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for them as they just paint the shade somewhat darker. Polyrhythmic is the only way to describe a band who haven’t worked out that 4/4 is often thought to be a valid time signature in metal. Why do that when they can groove in 5/8 instead?

There really is no other band like them, and that they continue to tour the world (they even turned up down here not long ago!) and release albums (this is their ninth) shows that while this may not be to everyone’s tastes, there is simply no-one who can do this any better. Meshuggah, djent, metal, intense, superb.

Unitron When people talk about extreme metal, they usually mean thrash, death, and black metal. However, doom metal and groove metal are a couple of genres that can be among the heaviest music out there yet get forgotten in discussions of extreme metal. For the latter, it's Meshuggah that has to remind listeners that groove metal can harbor colossal brutality on the same level if not more so.

The band wastes no time in thrashing with a mixture of jackhammer riffing, drum attacks, and sludgy dirges. It's business as usual for the band, with insane syncopation, downtuned drives, groovy hooks, and Jens Kidman's brutal screams and roars. "Born in Dissonance" may as well be the band's theme song, it pretty much displays what the band is all about. The sludgy "By the Ton" is another perfect representative for the band, as they sure deliver their destructive grooves by the ton. If they tuned the strings any lower, they'd break the sound barrier. "Monstrocity" is the main highlight, with the main riff sounding straight out of a Korn album, it's about as simultaneously catchy and crushing as you can get. "Our Rage Won't Die" is a groove-thrash fest to the most crushing degree.

There's really nothing else to say. It's brutal as fuck, it's heavy as balls, it's Meshuggah. Basically, if you liked the last couple Meshuggah albums or just like uncompromising brutality you won't be disappointed. Warning: May cause intense headbanging and extreme whiplash if you have long hair.

UMUR "The Violent Sleep of Reason" is the 9th full-length studio album by Swedish technical extreme metal act Meshuggah. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in October 2016. It´s the successor to "Koloss" from 2012 and features the same lineup as the predecessor. "The Violent Sleep of Reason" is a self-produced effort. Engineering was done by prolific Danish producer/engineer Tue Madsen at Puk Studios in Denmark. The album was recorded live in the studio, with all members playing simultaneously. So it´s basically a "live in the studio" recording, but you probably wouldn´t be able to hear it if you didn´t know it. Meshuggah are one tight playing unit. A well oiled machine. And even when they do something like this, everything is still delivered with militant precision.

Stylistically "The Violent Sleep of Reason" features very few surprises if you´re already familiar with the last couple of releases by Meshuggah. Crushingly heavy downtuned angular played guitars/bass riffs, the odd fusion jazz styled guitar solo/theme, technical drumming, crazy time signatures, and Jens Kidman´s raw aggressive vocals in front. It´s safe to say they don´t step out of their comfort zone much on this album, but the quality of the material is as usual incredibly high and the band´s sound is as unique as ever. I understand if some people feel Meshuggah have stagnated and that their style has become a one-dimensional and predictable size, because in some ways that´s true, but if you listen a bit more closely to what the band have to offer, you´ll notice that they still make little tweaks to their core sound. It´s nothing that changes their overall musical style, but there is enough development to keep the listener on his/her toes and ensure that "The Violent Sleep of Reason" stands out as an individual entity in the band´s discography.

The material on the 10 track, 58:55 minutes long album is as mentioned above of a very high quality. The tracks are written in an incredibly clever way and the technical details featured on the tracks are quite stunning. That´s not unusual for Meshuggah though, and it wouldn´t be enough if the tracks weren´t powerful and memorable too. That´s fortunately the case here though, and while there are a couple of tracks which don´t stand out as much as the best tracks on the album, every track is still of a high quality. Highlight include "Born in Dissonance", "MonstroCity", and "Nostrum", but "Violent Sleep of Reason" (which features some very intriguing lead guitar melodies/themes) and the crushingly heavy and therefore aptly titled "By the Ton" also deserve a mention.

"The Violent Sleep of Reason" features a powerful, raw, and detailed sound production, and despite how it was recorded, the album features the cold, clinical, and dark atmosphere, which suits Meshuggah´s music so well. It´s still organic to a degree though, and it´s certainly not a polished and lifeless sounding production.

So they´ve done it again...created another masterful release, which defies catagorization and which just sounds unmistakably like Meshuggah. The fans will probably praise this one as they´ve praised the band´s previous efforts, while the critics will say the same as they always do. This is not an album that´ll change that. Meshuggah´s music is still as demanding and inaccessible as it´s been from day one, and "The Violent Sleep of Reason" requires as much attention from the listener as every preceding release by the band before it. But once you lock into that crushingly heavy odd-metered hypnotic groove it´ll never let go. A 5 star (100%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy Chugga chugga djent djent, it’s the MESHUGGAH train coming back to town and after four long years following their most accessible album of all they return in full fury with their complex tech monster bashing mix of aggressiveness unlike any other. THE VIOLENT SLEEP OF REASON (the 8th full length studio album) is chock full of all the famous time sig torture and mangled mutiny of sonic suffering. The title indicates somewhat of a loose theme that is based on Francisco Goya’s painting “The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters” and it can be confirmed on this pummeling yet powerful 59 minute expression of brutality that they surely enter those territories and they are the kind that stimulate the senses in TOTALLY inappropriate ways. I love it!

MESHUGGAH wastes no time churning out the technical aggressiveness they’ve been conjuring up for a good twenty years and if you are familiar at all with the band’s output then THE VIOLENT SLEEP OF REASON will not sound out of step in any way with their unique take on mutilated thrash metal that has since been designated with the nauseating term “djent” which i rather despise myself. I consider it a guitar style of playing NOT a true genre per se but i digress and nomenclature aside it is the delivery of incessant progressive and aggressive dissonance accompanied by the saturnine atmospheric tone of the brutality liturgy that really delivers a top notch edition of the MESHUGGAH world of chaotic noise and overtly angry sonicity.

THE VIOLENT SLEEP OF REASON was a blatant attempt to get out of the nitpicking neediness of the production that the band found themselves becoming slaves to and as a result this album was recorded totally live in the studio. That means all parts were recorded simultaneously by all members instead of each track separately. This does indeed give a more organic feel and yet the production is totally modern, crisp and clean and allows every little ear shattering decibelage to assault the senses. The spontaneity of what the band sounds like playing together does chime through as the album feels much like a retro 90s MESHUGGAH album i have to admit.

All in all this is a fine and dandy album that delivers all the MESHUGGAH goods and then some. The technical riff abuse is in full attack as Frederik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström are partners in crime on the dual guitar assaults and Dick Lövgren on bass and Tomas Haake on drums absolutely nail the avant-groove antics without hesitation. Jens Kidman delivers the best of his angry anti-relgious and dark cynical lyrics and vocal styles as to be expected. THE VIOLENT SLEEP OF REASON is a fine addition to the MESHUGGAH canon but personally i can’t say i like this better than the cream of the crop such as their “Chaosphere” to “Nothing” remake period.

True that they keep their sound together in tact and offer an excellent slice of their homemade musical universe but at the same time they don’t really offer anything new to it and with music this brutal and complex it’s nice to have some variation involved such as acoustic and ambient passages that were prevalent on their earlier albums (yes there is some but not until track seven “Stifled.”) So overall this will not go down as my favorite MESHUGGAH album of all time but nevertheless a very worthy avant-garde progressive thrashy groove metal album for those who have drenched themselves in the chaotic avant-garde jazz fusion techniques of dissonant metal that they churn out so well. It should go without saying that MESHUGGAH is very much an acquired taste and nothing on THE VIOLENT SLEEP OF REASON will attract new followers. If you didn’t like them before, you won’t like them now but if you have swallowed this Kool-aid then you can happily expect more of the same.