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Live Reviews : Meshuggah & Thy Art Is Murder @ The Tivoli, Brisbane 11/03/2017

By on March 12, 2017

Eight albums into a formidable career, Meshuggah bought a djent onslaught to The Tivoli, Brisbane for the first show in an eagerly anticipated Australian tour.

Touring on the back of last years The Violent Sleep of Reason, this is an album that has received a mixed response from critics. Pitchfork summarised it as a record that “…begins to get mired in tentative rhythms that hover and even grate rather than achieve the kind of acceleration that Meshuggah excel”. I was certainly keen to hear how the albums tracks sounded live. Would they hold their own against fan favourites?

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First up, internationally acclaimed deathcore crew Thy Art Is Murder arrived to an affirmative response from attendant punters, especially so given three of the bands five members are Brisbane lads. Sean Delander, Andy Marsh and Kevin Butler offer lesson after lesson in brutal down-tuned guitar soundscapes, complemented by the battery of long-time drummer Lee Stanton. Possibly Australia’s preeminent extreme metal drummer, Stanton is our equivalent to the excellent Tim ‘The Missile’ Yeung of Hate Eternal/Morbid Angel fame. Watching Stanton’s technique live, forearms locked and ready to strike the tom and snare, he reminded me of the great Midnight Oil percussionist, Rob Hurst.

Tonight is the first opportunity for many to witness vocalist Chris “CJ” McMahon in action since he re-joined the band earlier this year to claim his rightful place as the bands frontman and spokesperson. McMahon was always the type to wear his heart on his sleeve and tonight is no different. Offering heartfelt gratitude to both supporters and his band mates for the chance to perform again, his larrikin nature shone through when he summed up the irony in the opportunity to tour with the headliners, saying that they are one of the bands “…you wanna play in front of, but you don’t want to”, alluding to Meshuggah’s fearsome reputation as a live act.

McMahon and his loyal comrades are at the precipice of something special. Thy Art Is Murder is a draw in their own right and were far more than an opening act. Watching them felt more like witnessing the next to last band on a festival’s main stage given the response of the punters and general atmosphere around the band’s performance. If the band can keep it together, their next release should be a colossus.

Next, the main event!

Fredrik Thordendal. The guitarist credited with creating a genre is the man I was looking most forward to watching and listening to this evening. Having only recently witnessed Animals As Leaders virtuosic pairing of Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes put on a djent masterclass at the cavernous Triffid venue (not to mention the genre’s other leading light, Misha Mansoor from Periphery offer something similar earlier in February), this was a rare opportunity to sample djent’s finest proponents in short order.

One after the other, a brutal barrage of stop-on-a-dime riffage rebounded off the Tivoli’s ye-olde architecture. Having witnessed many heavy metal shows hosted at the venue over the years, it is only after tonight that structural engineers may need to assess the building’s foundations. The volume and breadth of Meshuggah’s sound is truly awe inspiring.

If it is Thordendal’s distinctive palm-muted guitar playing that is the nucleus of the bands songs, it is drummer Tomas Haake that affords it a footing. For many, it is Haake that truly gives Meshuggah their unique sound and I can certainly understand that perspective given the performance this evening… flawless is a word that comes to mind. How he carries Thordendal’s rhythm as succinctly as he does is a wonder.

Lanky front man Jens Kidman prefers to let his song lyrics occupy the punters attention. His obligatory salutation to the crowd comes before the brutal “Bleed” and we wouldn’t hear much more from him until the encore. Nevertheless, I can’t image what vocal exercises he must endure to produce the full-throated roar his voice emits.

I find The Violent Sleep of Reason to be a reinforcement of Meshuggah’s legacy rather than building on it. The album may not offer a raft of new ideas, however, the songs in tonight’s set  (I thought I heard “Clockworks”, “Born In Dissonance” and the album’s title track get an airing) did not sound out of place among classics such as “Bleed”, “Perpetual Black Second”, and the humungous final song of the evening, “Future Breed Machine”.

One final thought I’ll leave the reader with is that Thordendal is one of the most thoroughly entertaining guitar soloists in the biz. As an avid fan of jazz saxophone maestro John Coltrane, one of my all-time favourite albums is Blue Train. I kept hearing the genius of Coltrane in the passages contained within Thordendal’s soloing. No idea if the man is a jazz fan or not, however, I’d implore him to dive into the genre and release something approaching a solo album. Based on the ideas contained in so many of his solos, lead passages, and his performance this evening, that would be a special treat, indeed.

Be sure to catch Meshuggah (with Thy Art Is Murder) on their remaining dates! Tickets are sale now through www.mjrpresents.com and the usual outlets.

About

Andrew is a musician who has spent many years performing on the stages of the pubs and clubs of Queensland. A devotee of the broad church that is rock, punk, funk, jazz and of course all genres of metal... he now shares his enthusiasm via a burgeoning pursuit of music journalism. Follow him on twitter @andymckaysmith