Meshuggah
9th March 2017
Powerstation, Auckland, New Zealand
Review by Kate Taylor. Photography by Doug Peters.
Fuck. Yes. Although two simple words could encapsulate the evening of metal majesty that was witnessed at Powerstation when Meshuggah and Thy Art Is Murder came to town; like the two phenomenal set lists devoured by the crowd, you’ll only want more. So here it comes, soaring from the tenets of mathy, complex musical artistry. Arriving early the crowd was visibly excitable as they lined the sidewalk politely yet barely waiting patiently to get in and go off. Opening up swiftly and packing in even quicker, it was a veritable who’s who of musicians, fans and fanatics bubbling into the space and taking up a spot. If there was pre-gig music on the PA, I didn’t hear it for the excitement of the assembled chatting and catching up on Meshuggah gigs passed.
Then creeping onstage in the guise of a doom prophet shrouded in black hoods, CJ McMahon and Thy Art Is Murder infiltrated the stage; after a little over a year’s hiatus, this was CJ’s triumphant first gig back with ones of Australia’s, no the globes most exciting metal bands…and they did not disappoint. Unleashing their first track as Holy War, was an excellent choice to make the unfamiliar within the crowd pop their monocles and promptly listen up. CJ ever the fantastic frontman brought the laughs as consistently as he brought the searing heaviness of his vocals. Hilarious and funny he clearly was beyond stoked to be back on stage with his boys even if to his own admittance, wasn’t “up to match fit at the moment” he puffed. “I’m 15KGs overweight and I’m feeling fat!” Absolutely no one was objectifying CJ, only screaming his name or hurling heartfelt calls of “Welcome Back CJ” from the pit.
Ripping through a set that converted new devotees and sated the howling fans of yore both The Purest Strain of Hate and Dead Sun from the incredible album Hate (2012) were absolute highlights. CJ even had a shout out to the “crucial metal dudes with long curly hair and their arms folded and their old 80s metal shirts on that want us to fuck off, well we’re not going to, so you can suck my balls”…which obviously, we all chuckled at. Humbled to be playing before their idols, Thy Art Is Murder was conscious to get offstage but not before CJ made full use of the area running out onto the sides of the stage, making it feel like a stadium show catwalk, lauded above myself and the others in the little pocket, as CJ bent himself into a backbreaking position, arms outstretched, screaming his lungs completely out. A quick end of set crowd surf from CJ and they were gone, it felt just as quickly as they arrived.
Then the space was plunged into darkness, I mean the crowd knew what was coming as we’d been gazing hungrily at the Geiger-esque sheath banners and stage design that foreshadowed what we could expect from Meshuggah, but certainly not be prepared for! Sweden’s finest metal export and undisputed mammoths of the genre, responsible for the way we create modern metal today, Meshuggah arrived to stage under total blackness and burst into our cochlea’s and retinas simultaneously aided by one of the most epic lighting designs I think I’ve ever witnessed at a gig; bathing the members throughout, precisely in time to the waves of metal they sonic boomed at our faces. Illuminated and creating an intense stage show that enlarged these mere humans into the kind of beasts you’d expect to be assaulting us with this brilliance, this intricate and seemingly impossible opus of death. Howling from the pit like demons, the crowd was enthralled, mouths dropped in exultation or in lower jaw grimace giving their best ‘Meshuggah face’ back to frontman, Jens Kidman and if you don’t know what Meshuggah face is, Google it, it’s a thing – or just scroll down to our images of Kidman going the fuck off.
Immersed in a set that was of equal weighting among their albums: Colossus, ObZen, Chaosphere, Nothing and their most recent offering The Violent Sleep of Reason, there’s no way you could be disappointed with this set, as time seemingly dissolved. Very economical with the stage banter, Kidman in that polite kind of Swedish accent that actually makes English sound refined only said “Good Evening Auckland. It’s a pleasure to be back here. We were here seven years ago at The Transmission Room if I’m not mistaken. Thank you for coming out to see us again” Then back into the ridiculously precise and mind splitting set list of which Bleed resulted in a tumultuous stew of humans writhing and hair swinging, giving over completely to metal madness. Later a brief tumble back into the dark heralded an imminent encore as someone screamed “Nooooo! Come Back” as Meshuggah’s shadowy forms slipped away from the stage. Ok, it was me, I was shouting that. Then as they reappeared and delivered us with their final salvo; it was in that moment that I decided and hoped, that if the afterlife does indeed exist; I hope that it’s this Meshuggah gig, endlessly gliding along some unseen symphonic six six sixth dimension, perpetually riffing out forever into infinity, nestling into the nether.
Proving that it was indeed organic human beings that just provided this sonic barrage; Kidman and Co. bid farewell to the Auckland crowd, at front of stage warmly smiling, nodding, making the heart shape with their hands on their chests and pushing them out from their bodies to their devoted. It was a spiritual experience, an absolute baptism of conflagration and one that should not have been missed.
Meshuggah
Thy Art Is Murder
Were you there at Powerstation to witness this technical metal gloriousness? Or have you seen Meshuggah live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Meshuggah Setlist:
- Clockwork
- Dissonant
- Sane
- Perpetual
- Stengah
- Hurt
- Lethargica
- Look Down
- Nostrum
- Sleep Of Reason
- Dancers
- Bleed
- Demiurge
- Future
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