MESHUGGAH with Thy Art Is Murder // Carving Up Carnage

Meshuggah with Thy Art Is Murder – The Tivoli, Brisbane, 11 March 2017

If you ever need to know if a metal show is in town, there’s always one, dead giveaway: the faithful hoards lost in a sea of black shirts. As we take up a seat at The Jubilee Hotel with our good friend Geoff Jeffson, we debate this fact and discuss its precedent. Is it that metal fans have a mysterious, symbiotic relationship to their uniform, that borders on telepathy? Or do they just really enjoy the feeling of dusting off that clean, pressed band shirt and slipping in to those crusty jeans? Perhaps, we’ll never know…

As we stare into the bottom of our pints, we decide to make the pilgrimage up the hill towards The Tivoli for the first Australian show of the ‘2016/2017 World Tour’ with Swedish metal titans Meshuggah (our New Zealand cousins having the distinct pleasure of breaking in the tour package a few nights before). From the energy on display in the streets as the eager and dishevelled metal masses file in, something tells us that we’re in for a treat.

Entering The Tivoli, Australia’s reigning deathcore champions Thy Art Is Murder are already in full swing. Bathed in an ethereal green glow, their particular brand of sonic destruction is washing over enthusiastic punters in endless waves, as the swelling crowd throw up their horns in unison to the pneumatic terror of Vile Creations. As the five-piece unleash themselves upon the receptive crowd, we turn to Geoff and remark that “Wow, it feels like CJ never left.”

Thy Art put on a display worthy of any well-oiled, seasoned touring outfit, and stick to what they do best: total fucking carnage.

And that much is true. We’re confident that there’re many in the audience tonight that aren’t aware of (and don’t really give a shit about) vocalist CJ McMahon’s much-publicised departure and return from the band, and ultimately, it’s not necessary knowledge. McMahon even acknowledges this at one point, instructing the crowd to make some noise if “they’ve heard of us before and don’t like us” or “never heard of us and like what they hear.” With half the venue raising horns and cheering the band on, Thy Art put on a display worthy of any well-oiled, seasoned touring outfit, and stick to what they do best: total fucking carnage.

Pulling exclusively from 2012’s Hate and 2015’s Holy War, blistering cuts like Emptiness, Coffin Dragger, Dead Sun and Doomed from Birth satiate the crowd’s appetite for musical violence, with frantic riffs, tectonic drum fills and floor-levelling breakdowns. In between songs, McMahon throws down some light-hearted stage banter, talking briefly of his battle with drug addiction, thanking his brothers in arms, and confessing to the crowd that while it’s an “absolute honour” to share the stage with a band like Meshuggah, “they’re the kind of band you want to play with, but you don’t want to.”

Closing with the now obligatory Reign of Darkness, McMahon’s confidence on stage is infectious, as he throws down gutturals, high-pitched screams and even a cheeky pig squeal to rapturous applause. The boys are definitely back in town and the future looks very promising for Thy Art Is Murder. Bring on album #4.

As imposing as the Swedish juggernaut may be, Thy Art put on an impressive display during the raucous Absolute Genocide, as guitarists Andy Marsh and Sean Delander stomp the stage with controlled efficiency, drummer Lee Stanton sits on his throne like a percussive Golem (playing in front of Tomas Haake’s kit, without the added benefit of a drum riser) and McMahon leads a cavernous vocal chant of “HUMAN SCUM/ROTTING IN SHIT.” Closing with the now obligatory Reign of Darkness, McMahon’s confidence on stage is infectious, as he throws down gutturals, high-pitched screams and even a cheeky pig squeal to rapturous applause. The boys are definitely back in town and the future looks very promising for Thy Art Is Murder. Bring on album #4.

As the house lights come on, and the metal throng around us gets suitably lubricated for the events about to unfold, it dawns on us that Meshuggah are effectively the ‘universal equalizer’ of metal today. The audience distribution tonight is about as disparate as metal can get, with Billabong-wearing surf rats milling next to dreadlocked grind heads, while beer-chugging longhairs casually talk shit with crew-cut office types. It’s both perplexing and entertaining, and its why metal is fucking great. If you don’t get that, you probably never will.

Meshuggah rip right into a chaotic set that opens with Clockworks and Born in Dissonance from last year’s The Violent Sleep of Reason, and pretty much redefines the word ‘heavy’. Almost like someone mic’d up a wrecking ball and then just let it loose on your ear drums.

When the Swedish extreme outfit take to the stage, everything stops and you can physically feel the focus and attention of a thousand fans like a force of nature. And speaking of fundamental forces, Meshuggah rip right into a chaotic set that opens with Clockworks and Born in Dissonance from last year’s The Violent Sleep of Reason, and pretty much redefines the word ‘heavy’. Almost like someone mic’d up a wrecking ball and then just let it loose on your ear drums. From the back of the room, we see heads rocking in sync during older cuts like Sane and Perpetual Black Second, as front-man Jens Kidman commands the crowd like some kind of demonic conductor, arms upraised as the head of a foul and destructive orchestra. When he headbangs, we headbang; if he screams, we scream. And better still, we enjoy doing it.

While the most obvious aspect of a Meshuggah live show is of course their distinct sonic pandemonium, tonight’s light show should not be under-estimated either. At times the band is cast in fierce hues of yellow and orange, shades of crimson and monochromatic blurs, and it allows us to see their performance in a whole new light (pun intended, deal with it). It somehow speaks to that primal, lizard-brain component, that hears Fredrik Thordendal’s down-tuned guitar madness in Lethargica, or Dick Lövgren’s bowel-splitting bottom end in Do Not Look Down, and wants to desperately run for the door like a total coward. Instead, we’re completely entranced by the hypnotic, visual aesthetic and in turn, Meshuggah grip the Brisbane crowd by the throat and squeeze the fucking life out of us.

Closing out tonight’s gig with an encore combo of Demiurge and the gigantic Future Breed Machine, there’s really no denying that Meshuggah are in a league of their own

The organic, live-room sound of The Violent Sleep of Reason lends itself positively to experiencing a Meshuggah show in the flesh, and anyone who prefers their earlier, painfully mechanical material must truly have rocks in their head. The album’s title track and the progressive, melodic flourishes in Nostrum are a thing to behold, and when the group drops Bleed towards the end of their set, The Tivoli practically self-destructs. Closing out tonight’s gig with an encore combo of Demiurge and the gigantic Future Breed Machine, there’s really no denying that Meshuggah are in a league of their own when it comes to heaviness (despite what a plethora of infinity-string, ‘djent’ clones would have you think). If people from all walks of life can come together on a Saturday night, and happily beat themselves into submission through your music, then we’d consider that a job well done.

Catch the remaining Meshuggah 2016/2017 World Tour dates featuring Thy Art Is Murder this week.
Tickets available here.

Sunday March 12, Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW (Lic/AA)
Wednesday March 15, 170 Russell, Melbourne VIC (18+)
Friday March 17, Metropolis, Fremantle WA (18+)