Meshuggah recorded Violent Sleep Of Reason live

Meshuggah
Meshuggah

Meshuggah’s Tomas Haake say they recorded forthcoming album The Violent Sleep Of Reason live for the first time in “20, 25 years.”

The drummer, who claims they were “one of the first bands” in the djent scene to use computer software to create their music, says they’ve opted for more traditional recording sessions on their next release to capture their sound “honestly.”

He also admits that he feels their last two albums 2008’s Obzen and 2012’s Koloss were “too perfect.”

Haake tells Metal Hammer: “This album is recorded live. It’s the first time we’ve done that in 20, 25 years. It was time limitations that stopped us doing it before. And it’s been interesting.

“If you put it all together using computers then you often have to fix problems after the fact. I’ve gone back to records where I’ve not known every drum part. And once you do that you can start with drums and then just add layers of guitars and then bass and it all sounds perfect.

Obzen and Koloss are great albums but, to me, they are a little too perfect. It didn’t really capture what we sounded like honestly.

“But where we recorded live you get to hear the push and pull, one person might be a little ahead and the other might be a little behind. If you kill that, you can kill the energy.”

Haake adds: “So for us it was just about going back to those albums that inspired us when we were growing up, that were important to us in our formative years, and all of those bands had that energy. The albums in the 80s and early 90s had the rawness that I’m talking about – that’s what we wanted to recapture.”

The Violent Sleep Of Reason will launch on October 7. It can be pre-ordered on Nuclear Blast.

Meshuggah recently announced a UK and Ireland tour. They’ll tour Europe this November.

Meshuggah The Violent Sleep Of Reason tracklist

  1. Clockworks
  2. Born In Dissonance
  3. MonstroCity
  4. By The Ton
  5. Violent Sleep Of Reason
  6. Ivory Tower
  7. Stifled
  8. Nostrum
  9. Our Rage Won’t Die
  10. Into Decay

Meshuggah tour dates 2016⁄2017

Nov 23: Amsterdam Melkweg Max, Netherlands
Nov 24: Tilburg 013, Netherlands
Nov 25: Antwerp Trix, Belgium
Nov 26: Stuttgart LKA Longhorn, Germany
Nov 27: Lyon Transbordeur, France
Nov 29: Madrid La Riviera, Spain
Nov 30: Barcelona Razzmatazz, Spain
Dec 01: Montpellier Rokstore, France
Dec 02: Bologna Estragon, Italy
Dec 03: Milan Alcatraz, Italy
Dec 05: Pratteln Z7, Switzerland
Dec 06: Paris Bataclan, France
Dec 07: Cologne Essigrabrik, Germany
Dec 08: Hamburg Markthalle, Germany
Jan 12: Bristol O2 Academy, UK
Jan 13: Birmingham O2 Institute, UK
Jan 14: Nottingham Rock City, UK
Jan 15: Glasgow O2 ABC, UK
Jan 17: Belfast Limelight, UK
Jan 18: Dublin Academy, Ireland
Jan 19: Manchester O2 Ritz, UK
Jan 20: London O2 Forum, UK

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Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.