MESHUGGAH + Hemlock @ Metropolis

By Jake - The Incinerator - 05/03/2008

This was my first time seeing polyrhythmic thrash legends Meshuggah perform live, and the show was exactly what I expected: flawless. The musicianship that these guys display on stage is astonishing. Keeping track of all the permutations the rhythms and structures go through is difficult enough without having to also concentrate on executing them; it's a wonder they can play any of this stuff live at all. Apparently, songs off Catch 33, the album preceding this year’s ObZen, were too complicated to even think about trying to execute in a live setting. Although in various recent interviews the band has stated that one of their main goals for ObZen was to create something that was more straightforward and "playable" live, you wouldn't know that they'd succeeded from listening to the album, which is anything but simple.

The band’s set list for the night consisted of three tracks each from the albums ObZen and Nothing, with one each from Chaosphere and Destroy Erase Improve. I was expecting the best song of the night to be “Bleed,” my favorite from the new album and according to drummer Tomas Haake the song which he spent the most time practicing for this tour, but it was “Electric Red” from the same album that blew my mind and was most certainly the highlight of the show.

The sound and mixing were both great from where I stood in the crowd (at the front and slightly left of centre, which situated me directly in front of both Tomas and my favorite of their two guitarists, Fredrik Thordendal). Tomas' kit sounded perfect, and each of his drums were audible over the guitars such that you could clearly hear every note he played. Fredrik's guitar tone was thick and even more punishing live than on the albums. The vocalist, Jens Kidman, also sounded great, but was most notable for his stage presence and his intense, scowling stare. If you've seen the recent promo photos you have a small idea of what it's like to see this live and have him glare directly at you. It's also really interesting to watch the band headbang live -- since they're playing polyrhythms and complex time signatures, they're often headbanging at different rates. It might seem easy to pick an instrument and headbang along to it, but you'll quickly find that you've gone out of sync.

Needless to say, the crowd went completely nuts for this show. Despite the high ticket price and the fact that Meshuggah was only a supporting band, there was a huge turnout of rabid fans, and the people closest to the stage took a lot of hard hits from moshers, crowd surfers, and various flailing lunatics. Bizarrely, the crowd was probably worse in that regard than any death metal show I've been to, and was probably only eclipsed in brutality by the Megadeth crowd at the 2005 Gigantour and the drunk crust punks who tore up the 2006 Sodom and Finntroll show at the Medley. My advice: if you plan to see this band live show up early to get a spot along the railing, otherwise you stand a good chance of getting hurt if you stay up front.

Songs played:

“The Mouth Licking What You've Bled”
“Bleed”
“Electric Red”
“Perpetual Black Second”
“Pravus”
“Rational Gaze”
“Straws Pulled At Random”
“Future Breed Machine”

Though this set list speaks for itself, I’d like to mention a few points about the opening band, Hemlock, of Las Vegas. Based on the songs posted on their Myspace, I thought this band was going to be pretty bad, but to my surprise they rocked hard. Metal Archives calls them heavy/thrash, but they had definite groove and also played a few songs that were full-out sludge. The singer took a nu-metal approach to performance, repeatedly punching himself in the face and pulling his hair. I thought this was pretty incongruous with their vibe, and not likely to appeal to the night's audience (a mix of technical thrash and gothy industrial fans), but it made sense when I found out most of the bands previous major tours have been supporting bands like Slipknot and Otep. Nevertheless, the frontman had a good voice and was great at getting the crowd excited and generating quite a few sing-alongs and big (but friendly) circle pits. In between songs, he told us to stay positive and never give up on our dreams. These guys are out to have a good time and make people happy with their music, and they definitely succeeded at this show. For an opening band, it was pretty solid.

As a final note, rumor has it that Meshuggah will be coming back to Montreal as a headliner sometime in the fall. Don't miss it.

Tune in to The Incinerator with Jake every Saturday from 8pm - 9pm