This is my first Meshuggah CD and I'd have to say that I am quite impressed with their work on this album! It's their sixth full-length CD the follow up from 'Catch 33'. 'ObZen' falls under the category of technical death metal. Guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Marten Hagstrom are using eight string axes! This seems to make the songs sound more "artsy".

Their drummer Tomas Haake wrote all of the lyrics to this disc. They're pretty intelligent not blasphemous at all more hate inspired. Jens Kidman did a good job on the vocal aspect of this mostly high-end screaming with a little variation but not much. At 42, Kidman is still kicking ass!

I'd have to say that the guitars stand out the most here. Not so much the leads but the rhythms caught me the most. There's also some clean tone riffs that are pretty unique. I'd say that 'Bleed' is my favorite track on here. You can check out a condensed YouTube video of this song at this link.

The mixing here was really immaculate thanks to Fredrik Thordendal and Meshuggah. Every instrument seemed to be heard really well. There was nothing really that you couldn't hear on this. Meshuggah took time with this recording (approximately 6 months.) According to Jens they really wanted to make everything sound perfect. You can watch some clips of Jens being interviewed here. He talks a lot about the release, his vocals,previous releases, and more!

Do yourself a favor and pick up this release ASAP! It won't disappoint!

Rating: 9 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
08/08/2008 16:45