Meshuggah – Koloss

Sweden’s – hang on, let’s just make that the planet's – foremost tech-metal architects return with their answer to ‘difficult seventh album syndrome’; the task of scaling 2008’s formidable ObZen must have presented quite a challenge, even to Meshuggah. No sooner has the sinister slow waltz of I Am Colossus duped us into thinking the foot has slipped from the pedal than The Demon’s Name Is Surveillance ushers in a full-on assault to the industrial rhythm of Tomas Haake’s double kick drum.

A little grittier in the production department than its predecessor, Behind The Sun and Marrow show off the two enduring qualities that continue to define the Umeå quintet as an influential force in modern rock – their lead-heavy groove and the cosmic heights they can drop it from. But for all the visceral appeal and technical muscularity that largely dominates Koloss, The Last Vigil finds the band comfortably gliding into more sedate ambient territory than the norm; a tranquil respite to finish another lesson in abject chaos.