Meshuggah
obZen
Nuclear Blast
Meshuggah hit their stride a few albums ago, for better or for worse. The album opener shows promise for me with probably the most thrash-like song since their debut, and has a relentlessness that hasn't been seen since "Chaosphere". Unfortunately, the promises end there. The simple fact is that they have taken their sound to pretty much everywhere it needed to go and they don't have anything left to add. Despite of all this, "obZen" is a very effective record, and even a more challenging one than the previous two, but it has nothing on the ferocity of "Chaosphere" or the genius of "I". Guitarist Frederik Thordendal's Allan Holdsworth boner has to stop though, album after album he re-hashes the same over-tired solos in the typical overly reverb-ed guitar sound. No more. I will probably still listen to this record plenty of times, which, I guess, is a testament to its quality.
- Simon Thibaudeau
