Meshuggah - ObZen

Expect the unexpected, declares the standard promotional literature with Meshuggah's sixth full-length studio recording. Well any listener that knows his Catch Thirtythree from his Nothing may have a fair inkling. Combustion boots proceedings into action with expected rhythmic velocity and a stonking groove-soaked central riff. Electric Red continues with some bruising dissonance and off-kilter time signatures. Expected maybe, but equally it is as finely delivered as the band's painstaking production deliberations would suggest. With that trademark throaty bass sound lurking behind the mayhem with brutal intent, title track ObZen is a markedly honed stand-out song incorporating the slow, the fast and the downright confusing alt-metal aspects to push this latest LP right up there with the best of the Swedish legends' back catalogue. [Jamie Borthwick]