Catch Thirtythree

Though they probably never intended it to, Meshuggah's 2004 EP I -- featuring a single, 21-minute song -- helped open new possibilities at a crucial career juncture for the long-heralded Swedish originals, whose instantly recognizable sonic imprint had started to sound tired enough for some critics to accuse the band of treading water in a progressive death metal pool of their own creation. Fair assumption or not, Meshuggah decided to try replicating and extending that single-song strategy for 2005's appropriately named Catch Thirty-Three -- at least nominally, since the album's virtually uninterrupted 47 minutes are, in fact, broken down into 13 sections separated in largely arbitrary fashion. For example, its first three, sub-two-minute songs, "Autonomy Lost," "Imprint of the Un-Saved," and "Disenchantment" could and probably should have been labeled as one title, since they lack the slightest change of tempo or tact to justify such separation. This was also the case with a considerable number of subsequent subdivisions, including "The Paradoxical Spiral," "In Death -- Is Life," "Personae non Gratae," and even the "best in show" winner "Shed," all of which find Meshuggah wailing away on the same aforementioned template combining harsh vocals and nightmarish melodies over coarse, mechanically advancing, oddball tempos. And so, unconverted listeners looking for the slightest deviation from type have to wait until the quieter, ambient dynamics of "In Death -- Is Death," the uncharacteristically melodic portions of "Dehumanization," and the mild electronics and robotic voices heard on "Mind's Mirrors." Needless to say, this is far too little too late, and there's just not enough variety or innovation to be found on Catch Thirty-Three, which may have been excusable for Meshuggah's first or second album, but not their fifth. At this point, it just sounds like a case of songwriters block. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia