Swedish metallers Meshuggah have announced their ninth studio album, Immutable. Arriving April 1 via Atomic Fire Records, the LP will be the band's first full-length since 2016's The Violent Sleep of Reason.
Posting to social media on Friday (January 14), the band shared a teaser of what we believe will be the album's lead single. In typical Meshuggah form, the 30-second snippet sees an array of chug-worthy goodness from guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström, and is no doubt a mere drop in an ocean of tech-y extreme metal to come. Check it out below.
“The title fits perfectly for where we are as a band,” Hagström said in an accompanying statement. “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. 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.”
Expect the album to be as musically complex as you can imagine, as the five-piece have been working on it for almost a year. The band announced their return to the studio – and the return of Fredrik Thordendal, who left the band in 2017 – back in March 2021, promising “distortion and kicks”.
Thordendal's reintroduction to the fold meant the departure of touring guitarist Per Nilsson of Scar Symmetry.
“We are releasing Per Nilsson back into the wild to roam free in any way he sees fit,” the band said. “It has been a true privilege and honor to share the stage with Per and even more importantly we have made a great friend through our travels. Per. We thank you. You are a formidable human being!”
Immutable arrives April 1, with preorder available from January 28. For more info, head to the band's website.