ObZen
Encyclopedia
obZen is the sixth full-length studio album
by Swedish
band Meshuggah
. It was released in Europe
on March 7, 2008, and in the U.S.
on March 11, 2008. It contains nine tracks, and a total length of 52 minutes and 25 seconds. Tomas Haake
makes his return as the studio drummer for the record after Drumkit from Hell
was used on Catch Thirtythree
.
The album debuted at number 59 in the USA with first week sales of 11,384 copies. In Sweden
, the album entered the official album chart at number 16, and in the UK
at number 151. A video was filmed for a shorter version of the song "Bleed".
The release of the album was followed by their first world tour
.
By September 19, 2008, obZen had sold over 50,000 copies in the U.S.
The song "Bleed" was released as DLC for the Rock Band
video games via the Rock Band Network on June 18, 2010.
, Haake stated that obZen would be a collective return to the band's past works, signaling a shift in direction away from their previous effort, Catch Thirtythree. "We've got some fast, intense songs and hectic, heavy stuff that draws from all the things we've done in the past."
The album was originally planned for release in November 2007, prior to a European tour featuring Meshuggah and The Dillinger Escape Plan
. The recording process for obZen took longer than expected and led the band to drop out of the tour, later explaining on their official website that the "album-promotional" aspect of the touring no longer applied and that they would rather focus their priorities on getting the record finished.
In an interview, drummer Tomas Haake
commented further on the time taken to record the album: "This time around we took almost six months to do all the recording and the sampling [...] we definitely took our time". Drumkit from Hell was used on the album, but not programmed as Catch 33 was. Drumkit from Hell was an auxiliary sound source. He elaborated on the concept of the album in another interview, saying: "If you haven't figured it out yet, obZen means that mankind has found its 'zen' in the obscure and obscene." Haake also mentioned his favorite track on this album is "Dancers to a Discordant System" but, he has stated that the band will never perform the song live because of the difficulty of reciting the spoken vocals.
. In an interview with Nuclear Blast
USA, Haake and Hagström explain that the artwork features a photograph of a male model in the "zen lotus position
" with the bottom half of the photograph being from a female model. This is because the male model could not perform the position, making the figure androgynous
. The model is covered in blood, which is explained as a metaphor for mankind finding peace of mind through obscenity.
gave a score of 83 out of 100 based on 6 reviews.
The album was praised for its consistency and how the band was claimed to continue their musical evolution, with Nick Terry from Decibel
saying: "Three years on, and we have a new reference point to chart Meshuggah's musical evolution. And yeah, things are evolving nicely".
The album was also praised for the band revisiting their early thrash metal-oriented approach on tracks like "Combustion" and "Bleed" while still maintaining the experimentalism found on their last few albums. John Norby from Zero Tolerance Magazine
gave the album a score of 5.5/6.0 and described it as "The best of modern-Meshuggah meets the best of older-Meshuggah."
Thom Jurek, in his review of the album on Allmusic, called obZen "sheer attack metal, played by a band that has run from simplicity to excess and incorporated them both into a record that is on a level with anything else they've done, even if not all the elements marry perfectly yet".
Magazines such as Terrorizer, Decibel, Revolver
and Metal Hammer
named the album in their 2008 year's end list.
Meshuggah were nominated for a Swedish grammy for obZen in the category of Hard Rock but lost to In Flames
.
Studio album
A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...
by Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
band Meshuggah
Meshuggah
Meshuggah is an extreme metal band from Umeå, Sweden, formed in 1987. Meshuggah's line-up has primarily consisted of founding members vocalist Jens Kidman and lead guitarist Fredrik Thordendal, drummer Tomas Haake, who joined in 1990, and rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström, who joined in 1992...
. It was released in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
on March 7, 2008, and in the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on March 11, 2008. It contains nine tracks, and a total length of 52 minutes and 25 seconds. Tomas Haake
Tomas Haake
Tomas Haake is the drummer and main lyricist for the Swedish experimental metal band Meshuggah.-Musical career:Haake is noted for his technical abilities; his drumming style is characterized by heavy use of polyrhythms while often maintaining a steady 4/4 beat. This signature style has become one...
makes his return as the studio drummer for the record after Drumkit from Hell
Drumkit from Hell
Drumkit from Hell is a sample based drum software synthesizer developed by Toontrack. It features heavy sounds well suited for heavy metal music....
was used on Catch Thirtythree
Catch Thirtythree
-Meshuggah:* Jens Kidman – vocals, guitar, bass, drum programming, mixing* Fredrik Thordendal – guitar, bass, drum programming, mixing* Mårten Hagström – guitar, bass, drum programming, mixing...
.
The album debuted at number 59 in the USA with first week sales of 11,384 copies. In Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, the album entered the official album chart at number 16, and in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
at number 151. A video was filmed for a shorter version of the song "Bleed".
The release of the album was followed by their first world tour
ObZen Tour
The ObZen World Tour is a concert tour by Swedish Metal band Meshuggah. It was in support of the band's 6th studio album obZen. It is the biggest tour the band has done to date; and the band has travelled to places around the world they previously have not performed in...
.
By September 19, 2008, obZen had sold over 50,000 copies in the U.S.
The song "Bleed" was released as DLC for the Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
video games via the Rock Band Network on June 18, 2010.
Background
In an interview with RevolverRevolver (magazine)
Revolver is a bi-monthly rock and heavy metal magazine published by Future US. Before covering heavy metal, rock & hard rock solely, it was a more mainstream oriented magazine. The magazine is structured in a manner similar to publications such as Spin while covering many avenues within the heavy...
, Haake stated that obZen would be a collective return to the band's past works, signaling a shift in direction away from their previous effort, Catch Thirtythree. "We've got some fast, intense songs and hectic, heavy stuff that draws from all the things we've done in the past."
The album was originally planned for release in November 2007, prior to a European tour featuring Meshuggah and The Dillinger Escape Plan
The Dillinger Escape Plan
The Dillinger Escape Plan is an American mathcore band from Morris Plains, New Jersey. The group originated in 1997 after the disbanding of Arcane, a hardcore punk trio consisting of Ben Weinman, Dimitri Minakakis, and Chris Pennie. The band's current line-up consists of guitarist Ben Weinman,...
. The recording process for obZen took longer than expected and led the band to drop out of the tour, later explaining on their official website that the "album-promotional" aspect of the touring no longer applied and that they would rather focus their priorities on getting the record finished.
In an interview, drummer Tomas Haake
Tomas Haake
Tomas Haake is the drummer and main lyricist for the Swedish experimental metal band Meshuggah.-Musical career:Haake is noted for his technical abilities; his drumming style is characterized by heavy use of polyrhythms while often maintaining a steady 4/4 beat. This signature style has become one...
commented further on the time taken to record the album: "This time around we took almost six months to do all the recording and the sampling [...] we definitely took our time". Drumkit from Hell was used on the album, but not programmed as Catch 33 was. Drumkit from Hell was an auxiliary sound source. He elaborated on the concept of the album in another interview, saying: "If you haven't figured it out yet, obZen means that mankind has found its 'zen' in the obscure and obscene." Haake also mentioned his favorite track on this album is "Dancers to a Discordant System" but, he has stated that the band will never perform the song live because of the difficulty of reciting the spoken vocals.
Album art
Although Meshuggah had not done so in the past, the album art of obZen was outsourced. With a vision of what they wanted the artwork to be, Meshuggah made use of cross-media artist Joachim LuetkeJoachim Luetke
Joachim Luetke is a renowned cross-media artist. He is mostly known for his artworks for bands such as Arch Enemy, Dimmu Borgir, Kreator, Marilyn Manson, and Meshuggah. His 'dark' art has also been published in book form and compared to that of H. R...
. In an interview with Nuclear Blast
Nuclear Blast
Nuclear Blast is an independent record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The record label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label moved on to releasing albums by melodic...
USA, Haake and Hagström explain that the artwork features a photograph of a male model in the "zen lotus position
Lotus position
The Lotus Position is a cross-legged sitting posture originating in meditative practices of ancient India, in which the feet are placed on the opposing thighs. It is an established posture, commonly used for meditation, in the Hindu Yoga and Buddhist contemplative traditions...
" with the bottom half of the photograph being from a female model. This is because the male model could not perform the position, making the figure androgynous
Androgyny
Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ, stem ανδρ- and γυνή , referring to the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics...
. The model is covered in blood, which is explained as a metaphor for mankind finding peace of mind through obscenity.
Track listing
Reception
The album received generally positive reviews from critics. MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave a score of 83 out of 100 based on 6 reviews.
The album was praised for its consistency and how the band was claimed to continue their musical evolution, with Nick Terry from Decibel
Decibel magazine
Decibel is a monthly heavy metal and extreme music magazine published by the Philadelphia-based Red Flag Media. Since October 2004, Decibel has featured a plethora of extreme metal bands and musicians. Its sections include Upfront, Features, Reviews, Guest Columns and the Decibel Hall of Fame...
saying: "Three years on, and we have a new reference point to chart Meshuggah's musical evolution. And yeah, things are evolving nicely".
The album was also praised for the band revisiting their early thrash metal-oriented approach on tracks like "Combustion" and "Bleed" while still maintaining the experimentalism found on their last few albums. John Norby from Zero Tolerance Magazine
Zero Tolerance Magazine
Zero Tolerance Magazine is an extreme music magazine published by Obdurate Ltd. in the United Kingdom. Published bi-monthly, it can be found on newsstands in the UK, Europe and North America - and is available on newsstands in Australia and specialist retailers in New Zealand and Taiwan...
gave the album a score of 5.5/6.0 and described it as "The best of modern-Meshuggah meets the best of older-Meshuggah."
Thom Jurek, in his review of the album on Allmusic, called obZen "sheer attack metal, played by a band that has run from simplicity to excess and incorporated them both into a record that is on a level with anything else they've done, even if not all the elements marry perfectly yet".
Magazines such as Terrorizer, Decibel, Revolver
Revolver (magazine)
Revolver is a bi-monthly rock and heavy metal magazine published by Future US. Before covering heavy metal, rock & hard rock solely, it was a more mainstream oriented magazine. The magazine is structured in a manner similar to publications such as Spin while covering many avenues within the heavy...
and Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer is a monthly heavy metal music magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and in several other countries by different publishers. Metal Hammer articles feature both mainstream bands and more unusual acts from the whole spectrum of heavy metal music...
named the album in their 2008 year's end list.
Meshuggah were nominated for a Swedish grammy for obZen in the category of Hard Rock but lost to In Flames
In Flames
In Flames is a Swedish heavy metal band from Gothenburg, formed in 1990. Since the band's inception in 1993, they have released ten studio albums and one live DVD...
.
Personnel
- Jens KidmanJens KidmanJens Kidman is the vocalist and former guitarist for the Swedish experimental metal band Meshuggah. He is famous for his very aggressive shouts and screams and for his "mean" stage presence.-Musical career and style:...
– lead vocals - Fredrik ThordendalFredrik ThordendalFredrik Thordendal is the lead guitarist and a founding member of the Swedish experimental metal band Meshuggah.He, along with Meshuggah's rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagström were rated #35 by Guitar World in the top 100 greatest heavy metal guitarists of all-time.-Musical career:Under the name...
– lead guitar - Mårten HagströmMårten HagströmMårten Hagström, , is the rhythm guitarist for the Swedish experimental metal band Meshuggah. He joined the band after the release of their first album, which allowed Jens Kidman to focus on his vocal performances. He is known for his strong and complex rhythm guitar playing...
– rhythm guitar, lead guitar on "Electric Red" and "Pravus", bass - Tomas HaakeTomas HaakeTomas Haake is the drummer and main lyricist for the Swedish experimental metal band Meshuggah.-Musical career:Haake is noted for his technical abilities; his drumming style is characterized by heavy use of polyrhythms while often maintaining a steady 4/4 beat. This signature style has become one...
– drums, vocals on "Dancers to a Discordant System"
- Meshuggah – production
External links
- Bleed video at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....