Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Complex, out of sync, mind shatteringly technical...., 7 Mar 2008
Unlike previous reviewers, I do not possess sufficient technical music knowledge to dazzle you with science, so here is my purely subjective experience:
First off if you're not familiar with Meshuggah check out some samples...they're not for the faint hearted. Meshuggah defy categorisation they are totally unique and don't fit into any particular genre comfortably...
As with every Meshuggah album Obzen is incredibly precise and structured and yet chaotic and multifaceted at the same time! In parts the instruments are out of synch with one another(polyrhythmic) and this feels like my mind is being pulled in eight different directions simultaneously!
Tempos vary from break neck speed to slow melodic passages that are laden with a sinister menacing undertone. Vocals are the same as all previous albums, somewhere between a death metal growl and hardcore shout, they're very sharp and laced with vitriol and spite.
Personally, I feel Obzen is more aggressive and energetic than Catch 33 but falls short of Chaosphere. Nonetheless it is a very intense album that demands a lot of energy and focus to fully appreciate.
Overall, as a Meshuggah fan I very much like the album, and recommend to other Meshuggah fans and those who want a unique metal experience to fragment and shatter their sanity!
Words elude me to adequately describe the off kilter, ultra precise madness that is Meshuggah's latest offering Obzen...
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ob-Nice, 3 April 2008
New album... back to their roots... fusing most previous styles... etc etc. Musically, this is definitely Meshuggah's most varied album, and for that it should mostly be liked by all Meshuggah fans. It features some of their most intense and some of their most lethargic material. Listening to some of these tracks, I am getting the same feeling I got from first listening to metal - never before have I heard anything quite like some of the things I witness here; never have Meshuggah been so damn amazing.
For starters, the production is obScene, the best they've had. I always felt that the production of the drum-machine releases suffered by feeling slightly artificial, but that has been nicely corrected. The refusal to obEy normal timings is present as usual, every I drank a shot every time I got blissfully confused whilst listening to the polyrhythms here, I would now be incredibly obEse. On top of this, all of the members give their best performance to date, thanks to the varied nature of the songs. The atmosphere is not quite as intense and claustrophobic as Catch33, (which many will see as a good thing), but for me this is a step backwards - perhaps one necessary to move forwards in the future).
"Bleed" is my standout track, I have never heard such an incredible all round performance. This is the single track from the album, for obVious reasons. "Dancers to a Discordant System" is the obLigatory long track that Meshuggah have grown to love doing, but this one is far more consistent than "In Death - Is Death", and more down-to-earth than "I". There are a few moments of not-so-much-filler-but-slightly-boring parts on the album, such as the Fear Factory-esque intro to ObZen, or most of "This Spiteful Snake" - a track which sounds like it was taken from possible extra tracks for Nothing. However, these few sections are easily covered up by the brilliance of everything else.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An early contender for album of the year, 16 Mar 2008
Quite honestly, despite what many people may begin to say about this album or even this review, I can easily say that this is Meshuggah's best recorded work to date coming very close with Catch 33 and I. It's an album that, like all of their previous offerings, has to be truly paid attention to in order to reach a true level of understanding of it. Opening track 'Combustion' really sets you in place for what the rest of the album is going to be with certainly no shortage of insanity or pure heavyness. There is no doubt that Meshuggah are doing something new with obZen but that certainly does not mean by any means that it's bad.
To make a long story short, obZen is quite simply perfect and you can thank your lucky stars that the Meshuggah boys aren't gonna stop there.
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