Due interviste ai Nostri - two new Meshuggah interviews about ObZen:
- a questo link potrete trovare una intervista di complessivi 30 minuti, divisa in quattro parti, rilasciata da Tomas Haake e Mårten Hagström a Loana Valencia della Nuclear Blast - USA. Argomento di discussione: ObZen, ovviamente.
- Qui sotto segue un'intervista rilasciata da Mårten Hagström a MTV (!). Il link all'articolo originale Meshuggah chugging along with 2008 plans è qui.
"It's been three long years since we've heard anything new from Meshuggah, but on March 11, the Swedish experimental-metallers return with what's maybe the first metal album of 2008 that deserves a solid listen. The follow-up to 2005's Catch Thirty-Three, obZen is the product of a year's worth of writing and marks something of a regression for the band, according to guitarist Mårten Hagström.
"We had this vision to make a dense album that was going back to the old songwriting structure we'd been using, where it'd have songs that were linked to each other by a common thread but still had a different identity," he explained. "Now, listening back to the album, that's something I think is the best part of the album, that we pulled that off and managed to get the diversity in there — if you can call what we're doing 'diverse,' with the kind of aggression that's involved. But we aimed to make an album that had that severe, aggressive quality to it. We wanted to get back to the sheer intensity of what we do, but really, it was all a semiconscious thing for us.
"I think this album's a little more direct than the previous ones," he continued. "It's more back to the in-your-face brutality of our older records and has a lot of qualities of what we've done over our career."
obZen features just nine songs, including "Combustion," "This Spiteful Snake," "Dancers to a Discordant System" and the first single, "Bleed." Within the next month, Meshuggah plan to shoot a video for the track, with director Patric Ullaeus (Dimmu Borgir, In Flames) behind the lens. The band is still looking over treatments for the clip. According to Hagström, the band got off to a sluggish start when it came to writing and recording obZen, but eventually the guys hit their stride.
"We started out messing around with new material quite a long time ago, and at the beginning, it was slow-going — but then, it kind of snowballed, which it tends to do with us," he said. "The recording process was similar to what it's usually like for us, but this album was weird in a way. It took a bit longer to write this record, and working on it was pretty gruesome, because we had the usual adversities bands face going into the studio."
One thing Hagström didn't anticipate was how challenging it would be to play the songs live. "That rarely comes this much into play, but we really anticipated that it would be a lot easier to replicate these songs than it has been," he said, adding that obZen is one of the most highly technical offerings the band has ever put to tape.
Meshuggah opted to self-produce the album because they wanted to have more control over the entire process. And while Hagström says the band is more than thrilled with the final result, he has no idea how fans will react to it.
"It's always hard to tell what the reaction will be to our records," he said. "It always takes me a while, personally, to get perspective on an album — to know what I think of it. But we're really happy with it, and I guess that's all that counts. You can only do something that really satisfies you. Then, if people like it, that's an added bonus. You always love to see an album do well — it would be weird to make music and not want people to here it. But if the record doesn't sell a ton, it's not the be-all [and] end-all for us."
Meanwhile, Hagström said he's not at all impressed with the current state of metal and hopes obZen will inject some much-needed inspiration into a scene that he believes is turning bland.
"I could say there's a lot of sh-- out there I don't like, and that would be true," he said. "On the other hand, it's a situation where there's a lot of generic, formulaic music out there, and I'm hoping we can help create a countermovement, a strong one. The last two years, I haven't been listening to much metal at all — when you're recording and writing, you tend to block out what other bands are doing," so their work doesn't bleed into your own.
In late March, Meshuggah will hit the road with Ministry for that band's send-off run. Dubbed "C U LaTouR," the trek kicks off March 26 in Calgary, Alberta, and is set to wrap May 9 in Chicago. Hemlock are also on the bill. Hagström said Meshuggah signed on with no hesitation when they were approached about the tour.
"It made a lot of sense to us to make it happen," he said. "It's going to be fun, and it's going to be nice to be out on the road with Ministry. It's a weird setup, as far as the bill goes — but weird in a good way. It appeals to us. And it's Ministry's farewell tour, which will be something people will remember anyways. And the audiences will be huge."
As far as what the band is doing this summer, Hagström said it'll be hitting the European festival circuit. So far, Meshuggah have no additional U.S. touring plans. Would the band be open to playing the Ozzfest again, as they did in 2002?
"I'm not sure," he said. "We definitely wouldn't pay to do it — that's for sure."
"We had this vision to make a dense album that was going back to the old songwriting structure we'd been using, where it'd have songs that were linked to each other by a common thread but still had a different identity," he explained. "Now, listening back to the album, that's something I think is the best part of the album, that we pulled that off and managed to get the diversity in there — if you can call what we're doing 'diverse,' with the kind of aggression that's involved. But we aimed to make an album that had that severe, aggressive quality to it. We wanted to get back to the sheer intensity of what we do, but really, it was all a semiconscious thing for us.
"I think this album's a little more direct than the previous ones," he continued. "It's more back to the in-your-face brutality of our older records and has a lot of qualities of what we've done over our career."
obZen features just nine songs, including "Combustion," "This Spiteful Snake," "Dancers to a Discordant System" and the first single, "Bleed." Within the next month, Meshuggah plan to shoot a video for the track, with director Patric Ullaeus (Dimmu Borgir, In Flames) behind the lens. The band is still looking over treatments for the clip. According to Hagström, the band got off to a sluggish start when it came to writing and recording obZen, but eventually the guys hit their stride.
"We started out messing around with new material quite a long time ago, and at the beginning, it was slow-going — but then, it kind of snowballed, which it tends to do with us," he said. "The recording process was similar to what it's usually like for us, but this album was weird in a way. It took a bit longer to write this record, and working on it was pretty gruesome, because we had the usual adversities bands face going into the studio."
One thing Hagström didn't anticipate was how challenging it would be to play the songs live. "That rarely comes this much into play, but we really anticipated that it would be a lot easier to replicate these songs than it has been," he said, adding that obZen is one of the most highly technical offerings the band has ever put to tape.
Meshuggah opted to self-produce the album because they wanted to have more control over the entire process. And while Hagström says the band is more than thrilled with the final result, he has no idea how fans will react to it.
"It's always hard to tell what the reaction will be to our records," he said. "It always takes me a while, personally, to get perspective on an album — to know what I think of it. But we're really happy with it, and I guess that's all that counts. You can only do something that really satisfies you. Then, if people like it, that's an added bonus. You always love to see an album do well — it would be weird to make music and not want people to here it. But if the record doesn't sell a ton, it's not the be-all [and] end-all for us."
Meanwhile, Hagström said he's not at all impressed with the current state of metal and hopes obZen will inject some much-needed inspiration into a scene that he believes is turning bland.
"I could say there's a lot of sh-- out there I don't like, and that would be true," he said. "On the other hand, it's a situation where there's a lot of generic, formulaic music out there, and I'm hoping we can help create a countermovement, a strong one. The last two years, I haven't been listening to much metal at all — when you're recording and writing, you tend to block out what other bands are doing," so their work doesn't bleed into your own.
In late March, Meshuggah will hit the road with Ministry for that band's send-off run. Dubbed "C U LaTouR," the trek kicks off March 26 in Calgary, Alberta, and is set to wrap May 9 in Chicago. Hemlock are also on the bill. Hagström said Meshuggah signed on with no hesitation when they were approached about the tour.
"It made a lot of sense to us to make it happen," he said. "It's going to be fun, and it's going to be nice to be out on the road with Ministry. It's a weird setup, as far as the bill goes — but weird in a good way. It appeals to us. And it's Ministry's farewell tour, which will be something people will remember anyways. And the audiences will be huge."
As far as what the band is doing this summer, Hagström said it'll be hitting the European festival circuit. So far, Meshuggah have no additional U.S. touring plans. Would the band be open to playing the Ozzfest again, as they did in 2002?
"I'm not sure," he said. "We definitely wouldn't pay to do it — that's for sure."
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