Short Reviews [Meshuggah - 1998 - "Chaosphere"]

It is difficult to realise that ‘Chaosphere’ is now 25 years old, how did that happen? When Swedish band Meshuggah released their third album back in 1993 they probably did not realise that their new experimental move into polyrhythms and away from the more thrash exploits of their first two albums would create the inspiration for a whole new genre, djent. To celebrate the 25th anniversary it is has now been remastered by Thomas Eberger and Sofia Von Hage at Stockholm Mastering, the with the result being that everything is that much crisper and somehow even more poundingly heavy than it was all that time ago. I came to the band later, so didn’t hear this when it was initially released, but the impact on the metal scene was intense and hearing it again all these years later it still sounds fresh and very current. If this was released as a brand-new album today it would not sound out of place in the current market, as this style of music is now something many appreciate and understand, but when this first came out the impact would have been devastating. Somehow, throughout all the chaos the band stay in 4/4, but such is the complexity and offshoots of music that one often thinks there are in 5/8 or 7/8, but the head knows what is going on as it moves uncontrollably to the groove. The intensity is off the scale, and any movement of volume must only ever be up, which means there is a real risk to eardrums with this one. Everyone who knows metal will be fully aware of this band, and will probably own some of their albums, but now is the time to revisit ‘Chaosphere’ in all its heavy beauty and mark at the birth of a movement.