Attention fans of head-splitting time signatures, malleable tempos, and the heaviest riffs that ever riffed. To celebrate the release of their new album Immutable, this month’s playlist is especially for fans of the djenting behemoth Meshuggah.
Our writers Mathis, Sebastian, Will and Zach have each chosen their favourite song from the Meshuggah back catalogue as well as finding hidden gems from smaller bands that we think you’ll love if you’re a Meshuggah fan.
We hope you enjoy this month’s Progressive Subway Playlist. As always, keep scrolling for some more info about our picks from the writers themselves (including a veritable thesis from Sebastian) as well as links to albums of bands included in this playlist that The Progressive Subway has previously reviewed.
Will
The connection I have with Meshuggah was they’re one of the bands I listened to almost on a loop when I was studying Art for my A-Levels. In the school’s art studio, I would find some out-of-the-way corner, open whatever painting or sketch I was working on at the time and spin up ObZen or Destroy Erase Improve on my iPod. Then, everything else in the world seemed to fall away. I was blissfully alone; just me and the texture of paints, the smell of turpentine and the cacophony of Djent.
Finding smaller bands that have taken a leaf out of the Meshuggah playbook has therefore been something of a nostalgic experience for me. I couldn’t resist including “Future Breed Machine” from Destroy Erase Improve on this playlist. I love the incorporation of the alarm sound in the intro (and then again at various points throughout the track). And I think the way the vocals are delivered and punctuated in such a way as to add to incorporate them as yet another staccato instrument in the ensemble. My love of electronic and siren-like noises in djent informed my inclusion of “Thousand Arms Fortress” by Returning We Hear The Larks for their technical, pinch-harmonic heavy riffs that could well be the soundtrack to a murderous AI.
Zach
In my humble (yet, undoubtedly correct) opinion, Meshuggah are probably one of the coolest bands in existence. No band has created a signature sound so sought after that it spawned a whole new genre in the process. And you can say whatever you want about “djent”, but it doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. Some bands have come incredibly close, while others see putting their own spin on chugs and polyrhythms, but none of them sound like Meshuggah. Maybe it’s Haake’s second to none, mind melting drums. Or maybe it’s the jazzy sensibilities of Thordendal’s solos. Either way, ‘Shuggah’s influence is here to stay, and I for one welcome our 8 stringed overlords.
Hippotraktor is the youngest and one of the most interesting bands from our selection of chuggy offerings today. They’re clearly ‘Suggah and Gojira influenced with their riffs and ferocious vocals, buttheir cleaner sections remind me of Karnivool and ISIS‘s softer soundscapes. If you like a bit of post-metal buildup and clean vocals with your chugs, these guys are for you. Omega District and Humavoid are cut from the same cloth, adding symphonic elements to the core sound and creating amazing results in the process. The former rely on synths, keeping with the Blade Runner theme of the album, while the latter features prominent piano and strings all the way through. Letters from the Colony and Limbo bring back the heavy, sacrificing the symphonic thrills for a more clear-cut, djent-y sound. And then we have Vildhjarta. Many of you will probably know them, as they’ve been somewhat of a prog-metal darling throughout the years, but I couldn’t not include them. They are what happens when someone says Meshuggah aren’t rhythmically weird enough. I dare you to try and count along with ‘masstaden nationalsang (under vatten)’. If I could, I’d include all of Masstaden Under Vatten, but you’ll just have to lose your mind to this one song. Hey, maybe it’ll make you check the whole album out. I highly recommend it!
Sebastian
Well, well, well it looks like the time has come: the month of Meshuggah’s 9th (or 10th) studio album. I think it’s no secret by my choice in album review selections that I am a huge fan of their patented style which seems endlessly sought after in modern metal. To celebrate such a historic date I want to shine some light on ten, yep you read that correctly, ten underground prog metal bands that are inspired by Meshuggah‘s djent.
Riccardo Moccia is an Italian metal virtuoso who has a knack for creating incredibly industrial, mechanical, evil-sounding, almost blackened djent. We got a promo from his 2022 album Sensed which was released just over a month ago because we’ve been somewhat short-staffed as of late I don’t think we’ll be getting to a full review of Moccia. But he definitely deserves it, god damn it! His songs are all packed in densely with abrasive, dissonant soundscapes, headbanging riffs, and the gutturals of a catacombs demon. One aspect I absolutely love about Meshuggah is their illustration of dark and nihilistic themes. The way they are able to deeply convey the inexorable mechanisms that dictate the universe through relentless, oppressive chugs and unyielding percussion. This is the kind of spirit that Ricco Moccia delivers well on and provides his own spin on it. For this reason, I included his single “Freewill” in the playlist.
Aeons was a band that Dylan and I were fighting over for reviewing back in 2021 because of how interesting they are at face value. They are what it would sound like if a 2000s metalcore band tried making a cross between Opeth and Meshuggah. A lot of the sonic choices used in their Consequences album are questionable but unique, oftentimes blending metal styles that you would never have expected to hear front to back. For instance, there is a song in it that sounds a little bit too close to “Death Whispered a Lullaby”, sandwiched between two djent-tastic songs with aggressive barks and down-tuned, vibrating, mechanical riffs. The highlights from Aeons are the songs that book-end Consequences, closing their album about as well as they started it.
I could not live with myself if I let a “Meshuggah FFO” playlist go by without mentioning Polars Collide, in my opinion, this band is the best reimagining of Meshuggah‘s aesthetic style except they take their music in a more organic and down to Earth direction. Their debut album Grotesque was undoubtedly one of my favorite underground albums of last year and Polars Collide is one of the smaller bands that I am most hoping will succeed in future albums. To give a short summary of what they excel on, they are able to deliver the right balance of disgusting, misanthropic brutality, melody, and sophisticated complexity in their songwriting. Their riffs are memorable and their songs have very progressive twists and turns that one should expect from a good progressive metal band. Being inspired by other bands like Gojira, Lamb of God, Death, Sepultura, and a pinch of Opeth, they have added an excellent album to the pool of extreme metal.
Giant’s Knife is a band that I reviewed last year and I will say that they are one of the three bands that I believe I most underrated. Being smaller, of course, their production level might not be as expensive as many bigger bands and I complained a good bit about the “stream of consciousness” songwriting style of the last two closing tracks. However, I will say that most of the tracks on this album are very coherent, filled with melody, and are pretty much bangers. To give you more of an idea of what they sound like, they are an instrumental (or should I say, InstruDjental) progressive metal band with post-metal leanings; they take their greatest inspirations from Cloudkicker, The Contortionist, Meshuggah, and AAL. Currently at 15 monthly listeners on Spotify, their music is highly underappreciated, so I would check them out and share a little bit of love.
Woe Unto Me is not the kind of band that you might expect from extreme djent; rooted in the deep atmosphere of funeral doom, it was surprising for me to see that they released a death-doom/progressive metal album during March of last year. The 30-minute EP, Spiral-Shaped Hopewreck is an atmospheric experience, drifting through the cosmos, and contemplating existence. Woe Unto Me are in their comfort zone when conveying deeper soundscapes which contrast well with their more proggy EP. The tracks ebb and flow between small spacey interludes which sets the tone for a mellow and soothing listen; that is until the final non-interlude track comes into play which is a cover of Meshuggah‘s “Lethargica”. This cover brings the old Obzen track into modern soundscapes and delivers effective grooves with deep impact and solid production.
My experience with WAIT (We are In Transit) is a perfect example of how incongruent expectations can ruin your experience of an album. Coming off of their high from Egoiista, Alex Weber and Max Phelps from Exist were joined by Charlie Eron, and Anup Sastry from Intervals to create the debut album for WAIT. The Cynic-esque, prog-death prodigies came into this album with very different goals than what one gets from their other projects. This is better defined as atmospheric djent, with crooning, mellow vocals, and lengthy chugging sections. I would say their album The End of Noise takes the spirit of Meshuggah with their immutable, chuggy, high-gain, palm-muted, polyrhythmic riffs; when WAIT gets on a groove, they basically do not stop until they’ve sapped all resistance out of you. It seems as though a lot of people don’t mind this quite as much as I did but if they meandered less, I would like The End of Noise much more because as it stands, it is one of the more unique djent albums to come out over the past few years.
For those who don’t know, Stömb is probably one of the most interesting instrumental djent artists to exist in 2022. Their songs are long and highly complex, not stopping too long on one musical piece before changing gears to another. Their songs take several detours that build up to monster crescendos with the combination of post-metal induced, pounding djent riffs, alien sci-fi keyboards, and atmospheric synth chords. Their guitar tones sound like a mix between the lowness of Meshuggah and the punchy, grooviness of Gojira. From the looks of it, Stömb will be coming out with a new album sometime this year and from the singles that were released, I think this one will be a slobberknocker.
Kobong is a band that only the prog metal historians seem to know about, and it is a darn shame because, one, they are the second chronological djent band to exist, and two, their style of funk-metal combined with avant-garde, djenty, prog alternative metal is something to behold. They might be as unknown as they are because they only had two albums before breaking up. Their self-titled debut is a lot more on the alt-metal/funk metal side while their 1997 sophomore album, Chmury nie było is very djenty and groovy. And for the time, competing with albums like Chaosphere and Destroy, Erase, Improve they were very well off in the scene. Who knows, in an alternative universe where Kobong never broke up, it might be Kobong and Meshuggah leading the djent charge together as competing factions.
Atria is an Iranian prog metal band with deep gutturals, heavy, djentrified riffs, and symphonic arrangements somewhat similar to Xerath (but better). In researching for this post I had only recently discovered their 2020 debut album Reincarnation but it is a quick, 28-minute experience that packs their songs with riffs that are heavy and energetic like bouncing bowling balls. The aggression that this band has is something to behold but they do well at spacing out tranquil tracks to separate the sonic beatdowns. Sitting currently at 20 monthly listeners on Spotify, Atria is officially the most underrated band on this list.
Can you imagine the audacity of a band that literally uses the name of an iconic song of their favorite band? I can, Stengah is a French progressive metal band that can be classified as somewhat tech death, somewhat groove metal, somewhat post-metal, but all in all, very djent. The songs on their debut album, SOMA SEMA are tightly written and contain a lot of quality material as far as their riff-writing is concerned. Additionally, they deliver quite a bit of dynamic variation in their songwriting to make sure none of what they have to offer becomes stale, with the inclusion of a power ballad (something that Meshuggah would never do), soothing acoustic interludes, and a saxophone section. Stengah overall excels at delivering quality songs with great use of polyrhythmic riffs, solid percussion and drum fills, and good mix and production.
Mathis
Admittedly I am not the biggest fan of Meshuggah. However, they have grown on me recently. A few months ago I was working with extremely loud equipment, and I am the kind of guy that can’t sit in silence. I always need some sort of soundtrack for whatever it is I am doing, and when working in a loud setting I didn’t like listening to more technical stuff. Enter Koloss. This record quickly became my work music because it was easy to hear amidst all of the grinding, banging, and whirring. Without a doubt my favorite track is “I am Colossus”, it is so slow and groovy and easy to keep track of. Eventually, I had to change up my playlist, ya know how you can aggressively over listen to an album. Well to avoid that I started listening to Humavoid, and I prefer them to Meshuggah because of the alternating vocals as well as the introduction of keyboards. So I listened to them quite a bit and then began searching for other similar bands. That’s when I came across BEAR, ok that is actually dishonest. I listened to them before but wasn’t a fan. I love them now though, and their newest album is great. “Propaganda” is the closest to Meshuggah, but the rest of the album has great grooves and heavy riffs.
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