You’ll have already made your mind up on Koloss by now, hell, I named it my album of 2012 and even defended it with a massively wordy and drawn-out argument that I’m pretty sure no-one read anyway (please validate my existence). However, the band are still promoting it, with a new video making the rounds for the opening mid-tempo dirge of ‘I Am Colossus‘.
T’is that beautiful time of year again. A season of good will, understanding and compassion towards your fellow man — a time for giving, loving and appreciating. The cold may have rolled in and the trees may have shed their once vibrant foliage, but the world finds solace in the love and company of others. It’s a time to reflect on the memories of the year and plan ahead for the next.
But most of all it’s a time to listen brutal fucking metal and drink a fuck tonne of Advocaat, because 2012 was full of great releases and now’s your chance to catch on releases you may have missed or may have never even heard of. My first draft of this list was composed of 30 albums, which then shot up to 37 when I realised that I had forgotten to include EPs. Everything from new bands that came out of nowhere to blow my mind (We Are Knuckle Dragger, Bloodshot Dawn, Oddland, Exotic Animal Petting Zoo etc) to the old guard continuing their brilliant legacy (Gojira, Aborted, Napalm Death, Deftones etc) all unfortunately fell by the wayside in the ruthless culling exercise that produced this list. And I regret cutting every single one of them, but alas, if I was talk about every album this year that was great, I’d probably lose your attention pretty quickly. Who am I kidding? You’ve most likely already skipped on to the list and you’re not even reading this bit. I could write anything I want here and no one would notice. Anything at all.
There’s a reason that Meshuggah tend to open their shows with ‘Demiurge‘ these days — even though the track was tucked at the very end of Koloss, it’s one hell of an explosive opener, filled with those churning primal riffs that the band do better than anyone else. And once again, it’s Scion that deliver unto us another visual counterpart for some great metal. I, for one, welcome our new vehicular overlords.
Filmed and directed by Anthony Dubois earlier this year, the video is fairly simply a performance video and thankfully one that gives you a good idea of just how intensely heavy Meshuggah sound live. The visuals are precisely what you’d expect but the headstock and mic cameras are a nice touch and the lighting gives it all a great atmosphere. Honestly, any excuse to listen Meshuggah is a good one, so go ahead.
- DL
Gojira01. Explosia
02. L’Enfant Sauvage
03. The Axe
04. Liquid Fire
05. The Wild Healer
06. Planned Obsolescence
07. Mouth Of Kala
08. The Gift Of Guilt
09. Pain Is A Master
10. Born In Winter
11. The Fall
Barring the obvious anomaly of Slipknot, Gojira are probably one of the greatest modern success stories in metal today. Over the course of four albums and fifteen years, the band have managed to create classic albums like From Mars To Sirius and The Way Of All Flesh, all whilst maintaining a steady line-up and becoming one of those elusive bands that has an appeal to both the cold-hearted purists and the more ‘casual’ metal fan. Now, with the jump from Listenable Records to the revenue machine of Roadrunner, it’s clear that the suits saw their ability to get stronger with every release, pulling in more and more of the unsuspecting public every time with their knack for mixing elephantine riffs, proficient musicianship and huge anthemic vocals.
I’m kinda bummed about their choice of single. ‘Break Those Bones…’ is one of Koloss‘ “duller” songs (which isn’t saying too much as every song is excellent), and I’d have loved to see ‘Do Not Look Down‘ or ‘Marrow.’ Oh well, I ain’t even mad.
Koloss is out now on Nuclear Blast Records. Get it, because it’s rad as shit.
- JR
Meshuggah01. I Am Colossus
02. The Demon’s Name Is Surveillance
03. Do Not Look Down
04. Behind The Sun
05. The Hurt That Finds You First
06. Marrow
07. Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion
08. Swarm
09. Demiurge
10. The Last Vigil
“I’m the great leviathan; the insatiable colossus.”
A more fitting opening could not have been found for the year’s most highly anticipated record. Few bands are as important to the current state of extreme metal as Meshuggah. Their influence has exploded since 2008′s ObZen, with legions of bands catching onto their elastic guitar tone and complex syncopated rhythms. Devin Townsend said it best during ‘Planet of the Apes’ from Deconstruction: ”While we all have lots of bands who influence still, we all rip off Meshuggah!” This has unfortunately lead some to question the band’s relevancy; how can Meshuggah stay interesting when the sound they pioneered is being done by everyone with Pod Farm and a 7-string? Are they forced to adapt and change their sound, or do they stick to their guns and refuse to give a shit either way?
Meshuggah‘s upcoming album Koloss is probably the highest anticipated record of the year so far, and we’ve had the privilege at Heavy Blog to hear it before release date. Hurray for press promotion! Our review goes up tomorrow, but I can tell you now that this record has quite a few stand-out tracks, and ‘Do Not Look Down’ is definitely one of my favorites. It has that killer groove that makes it catchy and Frederik’s guitar solo absolutely drives me nuts. Check out the lyric video for it above.
Koloss is due out March 27th on Nuclear Blast Records. If you care at all, our review will be available tomorrow at our usual reviewing time, so check back!
- JR
“The wait is over” proclaims the opening for this new trailer for Meshuggah‘s forthcoming album Koloss, which is isn’t technically true, but I’m sure you’ll forgive them some hubris, considering it is pretty god damn close.
Our promo actually dropped for us last yesterday, so we are busy laughing around the campfire, monocles on and “neener-neener” hats rammed firmly in place, so I guess for us this is true – however you can get excited by the news that the deluxe edition of the album will feature a ‘making of’ documentary, as well as some live footage from India.
A couple of bits of the new songs feature too; the heavier section is from penultimate track ‘Demiurge‘, whilst the twangy bit at the end (which let’s face it, sounds a lot like TesseracT or Uneven Structure in tone) is from album closer ‘The Last Vigil‘.
Other than that there’s not a lot new about this, but hey, not long now. Koloss is due out March 23rd in Europe and March 26th in America on Nuclear Blast. ARE YOU READY?!
- CG
It hasn’t been too long since Meshuggah had a hand in the leaking of their track ‘Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion‘ and we’re already catching another track from the band’s highly anticipated new album Koloss. ‘Do Not Look Down’ is available for streaming via the Soundcloud player below.
I for one think the new track is excellent. I really like the more sludgy grooves and organic sound the band has been going for on Koloss. The guitar solo is also an interesting change of pace from their usual work. Count me in on the Meshuggah bandwagon!
Koloss is now available for pre-order in an array of different options. Go give em a browse while you listen to the new grooves. The album is due out March 26th on Nuclear Blast Records.
- JR
Let me preface this by saying that the first person to comment “hurr durr djent is not a genre” is going to get forcibly bedded by the business end of a rake. No dinner, no candles, and no fucking Kenny G. The argument of genre/chord/sound comes up more often lately than racism in football, but the bottom line is that’s it’s a word. The function of a word is to convey meaning, and the word “djent” describes a genre to a lot of people, and thus the word’s purpose is served – no matter how hard you scream and kick your legs.
Javier Reyes djents; not to whom I'm referring in the title.
Last night we ‘broke’ the news that a brand new Meshuggah track had been ‘leaked’ – albeit intentionally – and although it happened late in Britain, the overnight evidence pointed to the internet simultaneously going nuts…and also being somewhat underwhelmed.
I could not have been less surprised on either count.
In the same way that Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin are now considered tame nowadays, and as the widely recognised progenitors of that sound, Meshuggah are in very serious and imminent danger of sliding into the very saturation and mediocrity that they spawned. Sacrilege, surely?!
Let’s look at the facts. By the time Koloss is released it will have been just over four years since Meshuggah last put out a record – 2008′s obZen. Unless you’ve been living under a five-ton lump of iron, you’ll know the ripple effect that this record in particualr, but all of their records really, have had on the progressive metal landscape; a landscape that has long been towered over by the monolithic bastion that are this Umeån quintet.
