The art just has “Meshuggah” feel to it. It’s strange, has a sort of sci-fi feel to it, and it’s fairly dark.
The booklet has lyrics and credits over a background that almost seems to be an ocean floor scene. It almost looks like a blurry photo of skeletons. This absolutely captures the essence of the band. No complaints, great job.
Musically, 'm a bit more cynical than most I suppose. This is not a 20 minute song. This is a few different songs basically worked together to flow together...to those who think that they couldn't sit through a 20 minute song, don't worry it's not.
To my ears, I even hear definite stops/starts...for example at 14:07, a new song begins...sure it's still the song "I" but it's an entirely different part. Think of Type O Negative's "Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity"...sure it's a long song but there are three very different parts to the song...so it's not one long song, it's three average length song. That's what this is.
Enough rant on length.
The song is excellent...few can argue the fact that Meshuggah is an excellent band but every song has the same sort of sound...notably the mechanical stop/start riffs that while technically great, can be really fucking irritating if you're not in the mood for something a bit challenging.
So, I was pleased to hear this song is well crafted and enjoyable all around. It takes a few listens to really get a hold of, but it's worth it. Meshuggah is a band that I wish only put out things like this...an hour of this and I get frustrated and want to turn it off, but give me 20 minues and I love it. Just put out EPs, a couple a year from here on out, we'll be set.
If you don't know much about Meshuggah, the band is heavy as hell...no mellow segments at all, driving, heavy, mechanical riffs...constant stop/start...which means they'll hit the riff and then stop it as opposed to melodically moving from one to another, they force the music to stop. It's an interesting sounding effect and they do it well, but at the same time it's not very easy to listen to if you're not in the mood for something pounding.
The vocals are screamed and sound excellent, I really like this guy's voice so even though it's not all that varied, it still sounds great. He has a brutal delivery and there's no clean singing nonsense that plagues so much metal these days.
Since this should be a bit cheaper than most of their other stuff, I'd suggest this one to newcomers. It's a great song and really gives you all the dynamics of the band in one short EP.
