meshuggah. a name that promises great deeds. i am on a little djent metal trip recently. animals as leaders' "weightless" record set the ball rolling. i always had a soft spot for this metal sub-genre and bands like born of osiris, cynic or veil of maya are constantly recurring guests on my turntable. as a sympathiser of such progressive sounds, it was almost inevitable to not hear of the band meshuggah. may it be via some comparisons in reviews or references in ebay search results. so when nuclear blast announced the release of the new meshuggah album two months ago, i got curious.
frankly, i didn't know just one song of the band but after i watched the lyric video to "born in dissonance", i knew i had a new addition to the collection. the only question was, what record version should i pre-order? nuclear blast offered a few but the only really interesting colour configurations to me were the turquoise and the bi-coloured version. the turquoise one was a bit more limited but deep down in my heart, i knew there could only be one valid answer to that question. i simply love split colour vinyl and everytime i pull this baby out of the sleeve, i wouldn't have it any other way.
musically this is challenging stuff. meshuggah doesn't give a damn about catchy arrangements. if it is not tricky to play, it is not their business. i didn't understand "the violent sleep of reason" by the first listen, not even by the second or third but the attraction never let off. after repeated spins i pierced through the complexity and can now see the whole beauty of each song. check out the videos to "clockworks" and "nostrum". can't wait to see them live in early december in hamburg together with high on fire. killing two birds with one stone.
what did nuclear blast do to the physical appearance? just the right thing. the double record is housed in a beautiful gatefold sleeve coming with spot gloss print on front and back. the artwork is pretty sinister and fits the mood the music transports to one hundred percent. i love the choice of the two vinyl colours. not only because they look sharp in combination but if you look closely, you will see that these are the colours subtly used in the artwork. very nice. all thumbs up for nb returning to 180gr vinyl! 500 copies made. nuclear blast. 2016.
