MESHUGGAH — The Violent Sleep of Reason (review)

MESHUGGAH — The Violent Sleep of Reason album cover Album · 2016 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
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.
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