''Chaosphere'' is the third studio album by Swedish

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

band

Meshuggah Meshuggah () is a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Umeå in 1985. Originally, the band's name was Metallien. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Jens Kidman, guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström, drummer Tomas ...

. It was released on 9 November 1998 by

Nuclear Blast Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...

, and is the only studio album to feature bassist Gustaf Hielm. ''Chaospheres sound shows the band toning down some of the

thrash Thrash may refer to: *Thrashing (computer science), where increasing resources are used to do a decreasing amount of work *Thrash (surname) *Thrash, mascot of the Atlanta Thrashers *''Thrash Rally'', a top-down perspective rally racing video game ...

style of their previous releases in favor of the technical,

polyrhythm Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...

ic, groove-oriented sound they would continue to explore on subsequent albums. A video was made for "New Millennium Cyanide Christ". The Japanese version of the album contains a bonus song, titled "Unanything", as track 9. This song was also included on the promotional card-sleeve CD as track 6. On both this and the standard album release, after "Elastic" there is a period of silence then an unlisted and unindexed track where four of the album's songs are played at once, with volume changes making each song somewhat dominant and recognisable in the mix at different times. The "Reloaded" re-release features five of the six tracks from ''

The True Human Design ''The True Human Design'' is the fourth EP by Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah. It was released through Nuclear Blast on 19 July 1997 in Europe and on 25 November 1997 in the United States. The EP includes an enhanced CD-ROM video track fo ...

'' EP.

Track listing

Personnel

Meshuggah

Jens Kidman Meshuggah () is a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Umeå in 1985. Originally, the band's name was Metallien. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Jens Kidman, guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström, drummer Tomas ...

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Fredrik Thordendal Fredrik Thordendal (born 11 February 1970) is a Swedish musician, best known as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for the extreme metal band Meshuggah, of which he is a founding member. Along with Meshuggah's rhythm guitarist Mårten Hagstr ...

–

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

s *

Mårten Hagström Mårten Hagström, (born 27 April 1971) is the rhythm guitarist for the Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah. He joined the band after the release of their first album, which allowed Jens Kidman to focus on his vocal performances and give up rhyt ...

–

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

* Gustaf Hielm – bass *

Tomas Haake Tomas Haake (born 13 July 1971) is a Swedish musician and the drummer of the extreme metal band Meshuggah. Known for his polymeters and technical ability, Haake was named the fifth best "Modern Metal" drummer by MetalSucks.net in 2012. In the Ju ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

, vocals (on "Sane" and "The Exquisite Machinery of Torture")

Production

* Daniel Bergstrand – recording, mixdown * Fredrik Thordendal – recording, mixdown * Peter in de Betou – mastering (at Cutting Room, Stockholm, Sweden) * Tomas Haake – artwork, design * Meshuggah – art direction * John Norhager – band photo

References

{{Authority control Meshuggah albums 1998 albums Nuclear Blast albums