Meshuggah – Gig Review & Photo Gallery 17th March @ Metropolis, Fremantle WA
Meshuggah
Metropolis, Perth WA
March 17th, 2017
Supported by – Make Way For Man
Meshuggeneh! Yeah, that’s the intended spelling to describe how mental the Meshuggah performance was. The Swedish metal-lords have graced Western Australia in the past, but never with this level of perfection. Metal-heads of Perth once again unite! We’ve been described many times before as the most loyal bunch of metalers in the country, and I can see why. Fans swarmed into ‘Metros Freo’ to get on some dark beers for a very dark show – the gig was conveniently scheduled on St. Patrick’s Day, and a Friday.
Supporting the extreme metalers were Perth band Make Way for Man, who admittedly may not have been the most suitable opening band for the evening, despite their growing reputation, as of late. The multi-vocal outfit ripped through tracks from their latest EP, with excitable energy and effort. The metalcore sound was true to the band’s style with some well-orchestrated breakdowns that earnt the banging of heads amongst the growing crowd.
The ruby red stage-lights appeared, the house-lights dissipated and the metal warriors staunched in the crowd in preparation for some brutality. Coming on stage earlier than anticipated, the almighty musicians in Meshuggah blistered into the opening riffs of ‘Clockworks’. The sheer volume and piercing reverberation of this track simply set the tone for the evening. It was kind of like, ‘ok, tonight is going to shave ten years off my li…’ – with your own thoughts cut off by the first shove of the evening.
Circle pits were rampant and perpetuated by the demanding tone of vocalist Jens Kidman, whose screams were ungodly and working like an industrial factory. There was no physical peace or tranquillity at any point of this set, though the mosh pit was consistently alight, prolonging the spiritual feeling of harmony with all the metal brethren.
The distorted djent-driven riffs of ‘Lethargica’ were enough to take the energy-level to 11, as people found a way of going more berserk. The blinding strobe-lights were switching in unison to the droning chords, superbly enhancing the live performance to the nth degree.
In all fairness, Meshuggah could have played a cover of The Wiggles and unleashed absolute carnage on the ground of the venue, but when Kidman introduced the next song as ‘Bleed’, it was like a triple-shot of coffee being injected straight into our veins. The opening melodic riffs and double-kick drums were enough to scrape the insides of your ears. Punters were still moving, but those two seconds between the instrumental intro and Kidman’s first roar was like the ‘3-2-1’ of destruction in the crowd, as fans went simply bananas.
Punters started to calm as ‘Bleed’ came to an end, as at this point they had given everything they had. This momentous rest was quickly shaken by the signature riffs to ‘Demiurge’ which was arguably song of the evening; there was something magical about the song’s delivery; indescribably hard-hitting, a head-banger’s dream.
The reality is, one can employ a bunch of fancy words from a dictionary to review the evening, but quite frankly, it could be summed up like this – Meshuggah’s live performance could easily be the heaviest gig of 2017; take me off the barby, I’m done.
Photo Gallery by Emanuel Rudnicki Please credit Wall of Sound and Photographer if you use published photos.
Make Way For Man
Meshuggah
