CoC : Meshuggah - Chaosphere : Review

Meshuggah - _Chaosphere_
(Nuclear Blast, 1998)
by: Adrian Bromley (9.5 out of 10)

If there was any band out there that had a new record on my most eagerly anticipated releases list, it had to be Sweden's industrial/metal-fusion monsters Meshuggah. Their last full-length, 1995's _Destroy Erase Improve_, was the record that put them in check with metal fans worldwide, a release so intense and pleasurable that new fans were craving older material, while fans of the band's old stuff (like myself) were pleased with the consistent evolution of the band. It was a milestone for metal music in my mind, a record that defined where a band could go with fusioned metal sounds, and a stepping stone for many bands to follow. To this day I still stand behind it. _DEI_ is truly that good. Following a rather neat EP, 1997's _The True Human Design_ (a bit of a teaser of things to come plus remixes of classic cut _Future Breed Machine_), the band regrouped their sound and style and got heavier and more compact. The latest offering by Meshuggah finds the band pedal to the metal with some of the most abrasive and truly downright barbs of anger this year. Sure it's chock-full of repetition -- what Meshuggah LP isn't? -- but it's the work around the repetitive guitar work and choruses that builds this metal machine into a roaring beast. It claws, kicks and grinds into our psyche an abominable force of metal mayhem that only we can digest with the utmost concentration. Not gonna happen. This is too heavy to understand and, like other Meshuggah LPs, there is a lot going on. Don't fight this, just crank it. Lots of goodies here, primarily in tracks like "Corridor of Chameleons", "Sane" and "Neurotica". It doesn't get better than this.

(article published 16/1/1999)

CHATS
7/31/2004	J Smit	Meshuggah: From Nothing to Number "I"

ALBUMS
5/6/2012	D Lake	9	Meshuggah - Koloss
2/25/2008	J Smit	8.5	Meshuggah - obZen
4/19/2005	J Smit	7	Meshuggah - Catch 33
7/12/2003	J Smit	6	Meshuggah - Nothing
10/19/2001	C Flaaten	5	Meshuggah - Raretrax
1/1/1998	A Gaudrault	6	Meshuggah - The True Human Design