Right from the opener “Combustion,” with its offbeat hi-hat and four-on-the-snare power-groove, there’s something new in Meshuggah-ville. They’ve slightly toned down the metric intensity from previous efforts. The result is a collection of compact, listenable songs, and Obzen is more powerful for it. Check out the riffs and grooves in “Bleed” and “Obzen” and feel your mouth form a perfect “O” from the sheer power of it all. The band’s über-low tuning makes it sound like an army of heavy metal baritone guitars on the march, but it’s so well-mixed that there’s always sonic room for the bass (played on this album by the band’s guitarists, Marten Hagstrom and Fredrik Thordendal) between the guitar chunks and the kick drum. This stuff is beyond just heavy and complex; this band is at the top of a game that it practically invented.
- Bryan Beller