Album Review: Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep Of Reason

Extreme metal trends can shift quickly; media darlings one day can be relegated to the scrapheap the next. These eight-string guitar-wielding Swedes may spawn fads but, nearly 30 years in, they continue to shape and tweak their polyrhythmic attack with tunnel vision.

Ivory Tower's slow-burn sludge and Monstrocity's titanic riffs are highlights, but suggesting the whole affair is sledgehammer-heavy and dense would be akin to claiming 2 Broke Girls contains a few terrible jokes about stereotypes. Utilising entirely live takes aired via real amps and speakers breathes a modicum of humanity into an act renowned for such machine-like precision, too. Another triumph.