Review Summary: Head-/earphone users, rejoice!
Spanning their 20-something year career, the Swedish tech-metal geniuses, Meshuggah, have gained a somewhat infamous reputation for producing what is esentially the same album over and over. This has been especially so since the release of
Chaosphere, their third studio effort. For those who dislike or were not moved by Meshuggah’s previous efforts, do not expect to be won over by their seventh studio album,
Koloss. It is the same mechanical beast that listeners have come to expect, yet it differs completely from what Meshuggah have established over the years.
2008’s
obZen was dabbed with elements that hark back to Meshuggah’s early, thrash-influenced works – ultimately making it more of an amalgamation of their progress. With
Koloss, the band has once more made an allusive step, but this time in regards to production. With the so-called ‘djent’ style taking Metal by storm with its overproduced and, at times, grating sound, what better way for Meshuggah (dubbed the pioneers of this sound) to set themselves apart from the countless clones. With intricate tweaks to its production,
Koloss is ultimately a superior album to its predecessors from a replayability standpoint. The end result is an organic sounding record that is more akin to 2002’s Nothing, albeit with greater attention to detail and polish. Furthermore, Koloss does not feel as burdensome in the longrun for listeners as
Catch Thirtythree,
obZen, and even 2006’s overproduced re-release of
Nothing did with their immense, oft-grating weight.
While it does not really progress their polyrhythmically-tinged sound any further and feels somewhat safe,
Koloss’ much needed change in production is extremely welcome. It ultimately feels like a breath of fresh air when looking back at Meshuggah’s prior releases and will stand as one of their best.
