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Being a Meshuggah fan is usually an exercise in delayed gratification. The band tours and releases music infrequently; last year’s full-length Koloss and the associated North American jaunt were the first of each in five years.
But Meshuggah has been uncharacteristically restless as of late. They are beginning a second American tour in a week, and today, Scion is releasing the Pitch Black EP for free. Get your copy below for the price of an email address.
Pitch Black consists of just two tracks, only one of which is new. (This is much less than many Scion EPs offer, but then, Meshuggah songs are probably harder to write than, say, Corrosion of Conformity songs.) The new song, “Pitch Black,” burns slow—it builds a simple, jazzy vamp up to mountainous proportions. Tomas Haake’s ‘robot rapping’ vocals are a little silly, as usual, but Fredrik Thordendal’s soloing carries the day. The live track, “Dancers to a Discordant System,” renders Meshuggah’s considerable live prowess in big, clear tones.
- Doug Moore
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Ouch. Take that, Corrosion of Conformity. As a counter-example, Wormrot’s Scion-financed “EP” is something like four minutes long. Can’t imagine their songs are harder to write than Meshuggah’s.
Anyway, I’m not a huge Meshuggah fan, but, in terms of band popularity, this has to be Scion A/V’s biggest release.
No offense to Corrosion of Conformity intended, haha. It’s probably just harder to get a band like Meshuggah, who take years and years to gestate material, to dedicate a bunch of songs to a release that will generate zero revenue for them.
If I was committed to defending the “tougher to write=shorter Scion release” rule (I’m certainly not), I’d respond that Wormrot is a special case. They play grind, which starts to experience diminishing returns around the 20-minute mark anyway.
Thomas’ robot rapping voice is silly to you? I would replace Jens Kidman, who’s getting incredibly boring with his singing style since “Catch 33″, with Thomas in a heart-beat! I can’t even listed to Koloss because of the bland vocals.
Pitch Black is a nice return to the “Nothing” sound (which I LOVE). Hope they next album turn out better than “Koloss” – a Colossal disappointment!
Thanks for the link.