On October 7th, 2005, the very foundation of the BB King Blues Club in New York City’s Times Square shook from some serious metal thunder when Sweden’s Meshuggah came to town, hot on the heels of their new epic release Catch Thirty Three. Along for the Fury of the Fall Tour were openers Mnemic from Denmark, fellow Swdes The Haunted, and New Jersey’s God Forbid, and it proved to be a formidable line-up indeed, as all bands really hit the mark on this evening.

Sea of Tranquility’s Pete Pardo and Ken Pierce were on hand for this metal party and report back with this full concert review!

Seeing as this was Meshuggah’s first trip back to the US in a few years, news that we heard around the venue early on was that the tour was packing the crowds in at basically every gig, and this night was to be no exception. Mnemic hit the stage to at least a half-filled BB Kings, and the fans were starving for metal music. Featuring brand new singer Tony Jelencovich (indeed he is brand new, as we found out while talking to him backstage that he had only been in the band approximately a month!), Mnemic sounded heavier and more charged up this night than they had a few months prior when they came to town with Dark Tranquility, Hypocrisy, and Soilwork. I think the addition of Tony on vocals has really injected some much needed fuel into this band, as the songs they played off the recent album The Audio Injected Soul sounded crunchier, more aggressive, and more alive. Tony mentioned that the band will go into the studio after this tour to begin the recording of a new album, and judging by the new attitude of the band (bassist Tomas “Obeast” Koefoed also mentioned to us that the band has a new found hunger that they haven’t had in a while) it should be a good one.

Fans of Sweden’s The Haunted have been busy celebrating with the return of original vocalist Peter Dolving for their 2004 release rEVOLVEr, which is a return to form for these kings of kick ass thrash metal. Featuring the smoldering riffs of guitarists Anders Bjorler and Jensen, the band cranks out plenty of massive yet groove-laden metal chords while Dolving lets loose with some furious hardcore tinged metal shouts. The tracks off the new album were thunderous, and as heavy & venomous as the band is there’s no denying the catchiness of the classic metal grooves that lie within their songs. After their short set of under 40 minutes, which featured songs from albums such as One Kill Wonder, The Haunted Made Me Do It, The Haunted and their latest, the band left the stage to a monstrous applause. It was good to see them back, and we can expect plenty more music out of this metal machine in the years to come.

God Forbid has been riding a bit of a wave the past few years. The New Jersey quintet’s last release on Century Media in 2004 Gone Forever really put the band on the map, resulting in tours with Slipknot, Fear Factory, Machine Head, as well as a slot on Ozzfest. However, their brand new opus IV: Constitution of Treason is gaining excellent reviews worldwide, and the ovation when they hit the stage this night I’m sure let the band know that they fans dig the new album. While due to the evening as a whole running a little late the band had to rush through their set and cut a couple of songs, the played a handful of songs from the most recent two CD’s, and were in fine form. Lead singer Byron Davis is an imposing figure on stage, and has a voice to match, as he screamed and growled with fierce precision, while the guitar duo of brothers Doc & Dallas Coyle add the right amount of crunch and virtuosity. You can easily see how this band has grown over the last two years, as they have incorporated plenty of melodic vocal harmonies and complex song structures to their new music, moving them slowly away from the metal-core tag towards a more sophisticated, perhaps extreme progressive metal band. The band wanted more, but God Forbid had to leave the stage a little early, to prepare the stage for the arrival of the kings of technical extreme metal, Meshuggah.

Experiencing Meshuggah live certainly is an experience. While their music is technical, it’s more from a rhythmic standpoint, as opposed to bands like Dream Theater, Spiral Architect, Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, Symphony X, etc., who hit you with loads of dizzying guitar and keyboard solos and unison arrangements. Meshuggah’s sound is massive and extremely bottom heavy, with intricate drum patterns and guitar riffs that stop and start using time signatures that most bands wouldn’t even think to use. At this time the venue was swelling to capacity (my guess is there were close to if not over 1000 people in attendance) and the audience in the front were rabid and enjoying every moment. There were many highlights from their 60+ minute set, but songs that really got the crowd crazy were of course the classic “Future Breed Machine”, “Soul Burn”, “Stengah”, and the classic “Rational Gaze”. The big surprise was seeing how well the medley from Catch Thirty Three went over with the crowd-this is a challenging album to listen to in its entirety, and you would think it would be hard to pick sections out from it, but the band wove it all together into a nice 13 minute medley that the crowd really dug. Drummer Tomas Haacke is just a monster player, and considering he mentioned to us backstage that his back was killing him and we was not sure he could play through the set, he pulled in an MVP type performance. The guitar tandem of Fredrik Thordendal and Marten Hagstrom churned out plenty of killer riffs on their new 8 string guitars, and Thordendal’s Allan Holdsworth styled solos elicited screams of “Thordendal is God” from various fans in the crowd. Singer Jens Kidman as always screams with the best of them, providing not a moment or shred of melody, yet his vocals never really needed that characteristic to be effective for the type of music the band plays.

It was a fantastic show, and sadly, due to a late show from a U2 Cover band that was booked after this one, Meshuggah had to cut their set shorter than normal and leave the stage. The fans though by this time had experienced a great night of adventurous metal and looked pretty tuckered out. We had the opportunity to hang out with the band backstage after the show, and they really are a great bunch of guys with unique personalities, who just like to create and play music and have a good time. We look forward to having them back once again!