Live on April 4th, 2008

House of Blues in Hollywood, CA

Review by Travis Baumann

I have only known about Meshuggah for a short time but the band has been around for nearly twenty years! While looking at their back catalogue, I was surprised by the number of albums they have put out.

Their new album "obZen" just came out last month and is primarily the only material I am familar with. Luckily for me, the set consisted of a heavy dosage of the new stuff, almost half the songs. I have to say, even the tracks I was not familiar with sounded really powerful and impressive live.

The first thing that hit me when I heard them was how fast they are while remaining insanely articulate. A lot of fast music ends up being thrashy or noisey but the musicians of Meshuggah have made an art of high speed precision.

Live, I was immediately impressed by the wall of sound. I was looking to see if they had a backing track making this cool percussive metalic wall of noise and I realized it was all coming from the bass player!  He had some really cool effects that resonated with each note he played and lent awesome atmosphere.

Even though they do use some keyboard and electronic ambiance on some of the studio tracks, I am not too sure if they had a backing track here.

They do fall into the fringes of the industrial side of metal just in the way they build rhythmic power with the guitars themselves. This style is fitting for touring with Ministry who in many ways invented industrial metal back in 1987 with "The Land of Rape and Honey".

The guitarist on the far right spent a good portion of the set bent intently over his instrument as he layed out the insanely fast chugging rhythms Meshuggah are famous for.

The guitarist on the left side, while by no means played slowly, handled the more articulated pieces. I wouldn't call them solos because they don't really fall into the conventional notion of such. It was impressive how intently these guys play but I guess you have to be paying attention if you're going to be playing that fast and hard.

As usual the drummer is buried behind an enormous amount of equipment but when you did catch a glimpse he was usually making intense faces like the picture to the left, the drumsticks literally a blur of motion, pounding out the rhythms.

I have heard Meshuggah's music refered to as "Math Metal". I can't say I am entirely a fan of the name but at the same time I can see where they have warranted it with their speed and precision. The bottom line is, if it is fun to listen to, which it is.... math is not this fun.

The lead singer employs a harsh vocal style but it is definitey not Black Metal style growls. He sported the shaved head he has become known for and was quite intimidating with his angst filled delivery.

They started the set with "The Mouth Licking What You've Bled". I thought it was a really cool song and was rather discom-bobulating while in the photo-pit right under the lead singer. Ministry's gear took up so much of the stage that these guys were pushed way up front which meant the singer was literally at the edge of the stage.

"Bleed" was next which is currently my favorite song of theirs. It took me a moment to recognize it as it seemed even heavier. I think the drummer is even better live than on disc and like I said, the live bass is really impressive.

Despite the other band's setup reducing their stage space, the chain-link fence did look pretty cool of a backdrop for them.

Next up was "Electric Red" off the new album. They then blasted through "Perpetual Black Second" and "Pravus" . They moved on to "Rational Gaze" which I recognized from listening online.

They only got an eight song set due to this being Ministry's last tour so they had to leave room for the headliners to play for nearly two hours. The last two songs of Meshuggah's set conisted of "Straws Pulled At Random" and finishing off with "Future Breed Machine" which the singer announced. This one I had become familiar with through their myspace page and like quite a bit.

The audience was really into them. It would seem quite a few people showed up just to support Meshuggah and they were very enthusiastic through out the set.

I had a great time watching these guys and Ministry was awesome as well so it was a great night.

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