Sold Date: December 19, 2016
Start Date: November 9, 2016
Final Price: £21.95 (GBP)
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Limited edition of 300 copies green (turquoise) vinyl 2LP with gatefold cover and Nuclear Blast info sticker on shrink.
Sold on the Nuclear Blast and Napalm Records stores as "turquoise", but the sticker lists it as "green".

In 2017 Swedish progressive metal pioneers Meshuggah will be entering their 30th year of
existence, defying expectations of the limitations of metal and proving their virtuosic prowess
by taking their complex compositions to stages all over the world through the band’s legendary
long tour cycles. It all began with 1991’s ‘Contradictions Collapse’ but the Meshuggah legend
was established through the likes of 1995’s groundbreaking ‘Destroy Erase Improve’ and the
band’s third record, 1998’s ‘Chaosphere’.

‘Catch Thirtythree’, ‘obZen’ and 2012’s immense ‘Koloss’ solidified the band’s reputation as
creative mavericks raising the reputation of what metal could be, resulting in status as the
creators and godfathers of an entire progressive music style known as djent, even if the band
has a somewhat ambivalent relationship with that tag or tags of any sort.

‘The Violent Sleep Of Reason’, the band’s eighth full length studio album, finds Meshuggah
building upon their legacy for fearless metal sculpting within the context of extreme metal but
also recapturing some of the magic and excitement specifically within the aspect of
performance, finding flow and groove that would be a challenge for any lesser band to locate,
given such technical geometric madness at mischievous hand. There’s a distinct methodology,
says drum master, writer and spokesman for the band Tomas Haake, that was put into motion
to help the band achieve the level of ‘swing’ the attentive fan will feel as he makes his way
through ‘The Violent Sleep Of Reason’. “Basically, there are more natural sounds. On the last
few albums, everything’s been kind of fixed and machine-like. For this one, it’s all live takes,
something we haven’t done in many, many years. And that definitely goes against the stream of
what you see in technical metal.”

The personal challenge taken on by the band produced fortunate by-products as well, or rather
it inspired them to ‘de-machine’ other aspects of the technical Meshuggah juggernaut. “Yes, we
also changed our philosophy toward guitar sounds,” explains Haake, who confirms that the
band are still using eight-string axes and, for the most part, tuning down half a step to achieve
that torrid Meshuggah guitar grunt. At the lyrical end, highlights include the title track which,
set to a massively heavy arch-djent rhythm, speaks of “the violent outcome of not dealing with
what is going on, the violent implications of being asleep. It’s actually based on a Goya painting
that is called ‘The Sleep Of Reason Brings Forth Monsters.’”

Another highlight is strident opener and longest song on the album, ‘Clockworks’, strafed by a
typically superhuman drum performance from Haake. “That’s more about looking to yourself
and who you are and things you want to change about yourself.” So would Tomas then
acquiesce to the idea of Meshuggah as metal’s reigning enemies of melody? “In a sense, yeah.
I mean, there is definitely melody and melodic thought put into tonalities and things like that,
but at the same time, we’re not going for anything pretty. Not really.”

Tracklisting
Clockworks
Born In Dissonance
MonstroCity
By The Ton
Violent Sleep Of Reason
Ivory Tower
Stifled
Nostrum
Our Rage Won’t Die
Into Decay