Review by Saxy S for Meshuggah - Immutable (2022)
Mechug-chug-chuggah
Well this has been a long time coming...in more ways than one. Meshuggah are iconic in the heavy metal sphere at this point and needs no elaborate introduction; their approach to metalcore songwriting with technical song structures practically developed the djent subgenre that exists in great prominence today. The only problem with that is that I have never been able to fully embrace the no strings attached, by the book djent style, in much the same way that my appreciation for metalcore has drastically soured in recent years. My only review of a Meshuggah release on this website was just over two years ago when the single I was featured as an Infinite record of the month. And it gave me an opportunity to discuss everything that I cannot stand about modern day metalcore and djent.
And so, despite my lingering issues with Meshuggah as a whole, I decided to check out Immutable; the bands tenth album and first since 2016, just to see if this band is capable of doing anything other than stale, formulaic breakdown heaven. And... well you can see the score of this album, you already know where this is going.
And at this point, talking about what makes a Meshuggah album so boring to me is kind of infuriating because their are a lot of people who will tell me that the minimalist song structure with technical forms are what make Meshuggah one of their favourite bands. And at least from a performance standpoint, I understand that sentiment, the riffs are very simple once you wrap your head around the tempo and time signatures for each one, making it easy to reproduce. They have a hypnotic flare to them from a listeners point of view. But it's more of a "stare at this pendulum as it swings back and forth" kind of hypnotic as opposed to "losing track of time doing something you enjoy" hypnosis. Each track on this album is one riff, repeated over and over again with very little, and in most cases none at all, variation. It makes listening through the entire thing very redundant when you can predict everything that is going to happen before it happens. Each song splits its limited melodic duties to vocalist Jens Kidman and spacey guitar leads that sound less melodic and more textural. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is the nine-and-a-half minute instrumental "They Move Below" that has one of the best guitar leads on the album, since it is not relegated to texture leads and has to maintain a certain level of memorability to subject someone like myself to almost ten minutes of djent droning! The limited guitar solos we get are also not that impressive either. Instead of having a solo with emotive presence or a climatic build, what we ended up with were...scale exercises. Just fantastic.
Is the album at least performed well? Of course it is! The precision on display here is unmatched in any metal genre. There are no moments where it feels like the album is slipping or rushing, a common issue in metalcore and djent style music as the performers build adrenaline that is fulfilled during its pummeling breakdowns. I guess that when your album is nothing but breakdowns, I guess the performer is quick to become numb to the endorphins. But that leads into another issue with this album, as well as the metalcore/djent subgenre as a whole. The unison riffage of the guitar and kick drum is so prominent in the mix that not only did they not need a bass player during the recording process, but even the vocals of Jens Kidman sound blocky and pushed back in the mix. Not that they really needed to be there since Meshuggah are not well known for their poetic lyricism, but at this point, why not just release an instrumental album? Why not call on Tosin Abasi to write some melodic leads and give these songs a breath of new life?
Perhaps it is unwise of me to review a Meshuggah album so poorly since 1. they play in a genre that I have never cared for, and 2. have surpassed legacy territory now with their tenth album and over three decade career. Minimalism can work wonders if it is executed in such a way to keep the audience engaged. It's part of the reason why I am so infatuated with atmospheric black metal artists like Saor and Panopticon. This is minimalism for people who just want to thrash out and give themselves severe neck pain. So enjoy it while you can because I'm not sure how much of it you'll remember afterwards.
Best Songs: Broken Cog, Ligature Marks, They Move Below, The Faultless