Meshuggah – I
Author: Dan Bennett
One track, twenty-one minutes, pure brutality. Fans of Meshuggah should know what to expect from this EP, but will still find plenty of surprises. It starts off with a build-up of the band’s trademark guitar scratches and drumbeats, muted for effect. Then suddenly at the 1:30 mark, a fury of screams and eardrum shattering guitars attacks the listener followed by a brief silence, and then it picks up like any other Meshuggah song. The rest of the song plays out like a medley of their usual music, which somewhat makes the song’s length seems like a gimmick, but at the same time, doesn’t bore the listener. As expected, there are numerous breakdowns and guitar solos, all unique and with that classic Meshuggah sound. As a whole, it sounds a lot like Destroy Erase Improve era Meshuggah, which should be good news to most fans. The instrumentation is in top form on this song, and frontman Jens Kidman delivers his usual angry growls and screams. After many more changeups, the song goes out on a subtler note with slower guitar riffs followed by seemingly endless feedback. When the disc spins out, fans of Meshuggah should be more than satisfied. After well over a decade of releases, it’s a wonder why they haven’t tried something like this before. To this day, Meshuggah remains as one of the strongest figures in progressive heavy metal.
Rating: 9/10
(+5 rating, 1 votes)
