Review by Shadowdoom9 (Andi) for Meshuggah - Immutable (2022)
"Meshuggah record an album with such complex time signatures they get trapped inside the music. The album is never released for fear of opening a black hole." This was one of Andrew O'Neill's future predictions in the History of Heavy Metal book I've reviewed. Well it seems like their record label has the guts to release such an album, so if any of you thought the band were trapped within their music and it would cause the end of the galaxy as we know it, prepare to be relieved while hearing what to expect!
Normally, it would take Meshuggah 3 or 4 years to release an album, but Immutable was finally released after a long 6 years, with the virus causing some delays. Meshuggah have returned with their signature djent sound while evolving into new territory. Immutable is a long 67-minute ride through their usual djent tones in farther ground!
Staccato riffing opens "Broken Cog" sounding mathy and almost industrial. The guitar leads heading into a melodic angel while keeping the djent record straight is performed by the wild duo of Mårten Hagström and Fredrik Thordendal, while vocalist Jens Kidman sounds restrained yet sinister. "The Abysmal Eye" blasts into your face h*lla killer sh*t right here! You could reassemble the music and lyrics and it would still be legit Meshuggah. Definitely some heavy fire they still have since Koloss, maybe even Nothing. I just love this groove-ish djent style that Tomas Haake plays loud in his drumming. I seriously like it! This wakes me up way more than coffee and tea. The ending riff pulls off some sick heavy burn. I recommend this song to djent fans all around! "Light the Shortening Fuse" is another hail of a killer song! At two and a half minutes is a cleaner part that's the best here. I'm sure Jinjer has done the same in one of their songs. After that energetic trio, "Phantoms" is just two notes alternating in the first half. WHY?!? It lacks any built tension! The mundane verse-chorus structure in a mid-paced tempo doesn't help. The slow "Ligature Marks" has unstable weight but has a promising climax.
"God He Sees in Mirrors" adds variation to the tempo, shredding through killer bass riffing, guitar harmonics, and more of the wild polyrhythms in the drumming. Some of the most aggressive extreme progressive metal this year! The nearly 10-minute instrumental "They Move Below" mixes slow gothic melody with monstrous riffing, something to come to the minds of early Killing Joke listeners. "Kaleidoscope" has that heavy-a** djent riffing Meshuggah invented in Nothing. The guitar and bass circle around Haake's swinging drum groove. Then we have a shorter instrumental, "Black Cathedral". If we could add blast-beat drumming behind the metal guitar, that would've been awesome.
"I Am That Thirst" provides melodic leads over catchy death metal-ish rhythm. "The Faultless" progresses through a dissonant angle in the guitar as Haake's drumming thunders through again. "Armies of the Preposterous" is the last full song of the album, and the heaviest too, closer to deathly progressive metal. "Past Tense" is the album's instrumental closer. The guitar has harmonic melody throughout without any earth-shattering climax, but it sounds as if horror lurks beneath, waiting for more to come...
In the end, Immutable maintains Meshuggah's djent essence despite a couple setbacks in its first half. The band's comfort zone continues to shine with hellishly obliterating downtuned metal while relentlessly pushing through the boundaries for more discoveries awaiting....
Favorites: "The Abysmal Eye", "Light the Shortening Fuse", "God He Sees in Mirrors", "Kaleidoscope", "The Faultless", "Armies of the Preposterous"