''Immutable'' is the ninth 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 1 April 2022 via Atomic Fire Records, making it the band's first studio album to not be released through
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 ...
.
Background
Guitarist
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 ...
stated “The title ''Immutable'' fits perfectly for where we are as a band,” “We’re older now. Most of us are in our 50s now, and we’ve settled into who we are. Even though we’ve been experimenting all along, I also think we’ve been the same since day one.”
He continued: “The way we approach things and why we still make new albums, and why we still sound the way we do, it’s immutable. Humanity is immutable, too. We commit the same mistakes over and over. And we are immutable. We do what we do, and we don’t change.”
In addition, certain Meshuggah songs on Spotify leaked a URL, which was https://immutable.se/. Clicking the link would give you a teaser of the song "Ligature Marks" and the release date
The songs "The Abysmal Eye", "Light the Shortening Fuse" and "I Am That Thirst" were published as singles before the album release. Music videos were released for "The Abysmal Eye" and "Broken Cog".
Reception
''Immutable'' has received universal acclaim from critics with a score 83 out of 100 on
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
.
Thom Jurek of
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
wrote: "Ultimately, ''Immutable'' delivers the very essence of Meshuggah. While comfortable in their collective skin, they continue expanding their reach by obliterating – hell, nearly swallowing – metal's genre boundaries in their long, relentless search for the undiscovered."
Accolades
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
*
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 on 2, 6, 8, 11
*
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, backing vocals on 11, whispers on 1.
*
Dick Lövgren
Dick Lövgren (born 11 November 1980) is a Swedish musician. He is the bass guitarist for extreme metal band Meshuggah, which he joined in 2004.
Biography
In his early days, Lövgren was particularly impressed with the Metallica bass guitarist ...
– 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, spoken word on 11
Production
* Rickard Bengtsson and Staffan Karlsson – mixing
*
Vlado Meller
Vlado Meller is a Slovak audio mastering engineer, currently with Vlado Meller Mastering in Charleston, South Carolina. Meller works across many genres of music, with credits on rock, hip-hop, pop, jazz, metal, dance, opera, Broadway, and classica ...
– mastering
* Luminokaya – artwork
Charts
References
{{Meshuggah
2022 albums
Meshuggah albums