Yes, I know the album hasn't been released yet, but since it's happened more than once that someone reviewed albums before their release, please don't hold it against me if I take the liberty to discuss this album before its release date.

We're not there, not this time, let's say it right away, the Meshuggah of 2008 have half-failed, the goal has been achieved only partially.
Why start the review this way? Simple, because this "ObZen", on one hand, brings back the classic style of the Swedish band, meaning a post-thrash metal packed as much as possible with all kinds of technicalities, but on the other hand shows us a tired band, incapable of surprising as they did in the past.
It had been since "Catch 33" in 2005 that Meshuggah hadn't pulled something truly formidable out of the hat, but predicting such a situation honestly wasn't evident, nothing unthinkable, to be clear, after all, the songs are well-structured, the riffs are powerful, and the rhythms as usual are complex and chameleon-like in their evolution, but what is really missing is the charm present in past compositions: in "ObZen" we find ourselves with a handful of songs just more than decent, alternating with rather poor and confused compositions; another aspect that really doesn't seem to convince is Kidman's voice which on more than one occasion seems strained and almost out of place.

Of course, by thoroughly skimming through all eight songs, something of value can be found, what comes to mind, for example, are the keyboards used in "Bleed", perhaps the only track endowed with that old charm absent from the album, capable of giving the piece atmospheres with vague gothic shades, which further embellish the only "goal" scored by our band in the album.
Other aspects to praise are certainly the instrumental performance of our guys, truly superb and entirely exempt from criticism, finally showing bass lines that are a bit more refined and less raw compared to the past, thanks also to the presence of a bassist (let's remember that in 2005 on "Catch 33" the bass was played by Kidman, who for those who don't know, actually covers only the role of the singer), but also guitar solos of great taste endowed with the right dose of melody and technical complexity, but above all what impresses is the recording quality, capable of doing justice to each single instrument, resulting in a very clean sound but not plasticky or cloying, a risk you might face when choosing to give the album very clean sounds.

Well, what else to add? Nothing, I would say, except that the Meshuggah of 2008 are like this, not entirely convincing, incapable of shocking the listener, yet they still manage to produce adequate albums which, on the whole, still meet the qualitative average of today's releases.

Tracklist and Samples

01   Combustion (04:08)

02   Electric Red (05:51)

03   Bleed (07:22)

04   Lethargica (05:47)

05   obZen (04:24)

06   This Spiteful Snake (04:52)

07   Pineal Gland Optics (05:12)

08   Pravus (05:10)

09   Dancers to a Discordant System (09:36)

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By LordOfLight

 From the first listen, the album sounds powerful and cohesive, the rhythms are always very complex.

 The 2008 Meshuggah still manage to hit the mark, always proving to be exceptionally fresh and full of brilliant ideas.