Don’t Call It Flippin’ Djent.
Yo, this be Reuben. I do like metal. Meshuggah is pretty much metal to the max, just without the necrophilia infested lyrics of Cannibal Corpse or any of that horrible death metal stuff. This is as far as I’ll go with metal, anyway.
What is great about Meshuggah other than their terrific name is their unrelenting heaviness. With their double-guitar attack and pounding bass they’ve made themselves quite the mosh-provoking sound. However, what makes Meshuggah so unique, is their mind bending time signatures and ridiculous drumming from Tomas Haake, which makes moshing surprisingly difficult. In terms of musicianship, Meshuggah are no question one of the best in the metal industry, and obZen is probably the perfect example of these sick trickz.
obZen drives through your ear canals like a weird monster truck on some kind of experimental drug as its unfathomable tunes do tricks on surfboards; ruthless riffs rip through your speakers with deaf-makers like the glorious beast in the beginning of Lethargica, along with the ominous atmosphere created by the mixing effects and stop-gaps most prominent in Dancers to a Discordant System. obZen throws your brain into a squash room as the varying pitches and time signatures bounce around like cannibalistic elephants on speed, as you’re terrified for your life. They’re thumping steps the chunky, slow sections, and their speed-induced rampages the incredible fast sections, as obZen changes from extreme to progressive metal in the matter of milliseconds.
Vocalist Jens Kidman puts on a brutal performance in obZen that brings the hectic atmosphere of the 2008 album to life, while the musicians certainly do their bit to make it the unique album it sets out to be. However, the overtly hectic feel of obZen means that some moments can be lost in the album, as it becomes a little bit of a mesh, although a couple of tracks do stand out as obvious highlights, like the epic Dancers to a Discordant System and vicious Obzen. Even so, some of the fastest sections can have the tendency to be just, a bit noisy – like in sections of Bleed and Pravus.
Nonetheless, obZen makes up for its li’l issues and can be complete and utter metal heaven when it is slow, chunky and PHAT — which often it is. Its metal musicality is practically unmatched, and braving the overly hectic sections is totally worth it because whatever follows is usually damn awesome.
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90/100
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Bringing redundant opinions for scrollers everywhere,
Reuben.
Stuff and That. 
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