Fredik Thordendal, Meshuggah´s main guitarist, responsable for some of the most brutal music ever conceived on this planet, embarked into a solo effort and made sure it stand out. Not only for it´s trademark polyrythmic riffs, so well known with his band, but, this time, with some extra flavors. While Meshuggah is strikly guitar/drum oriented music, Sol Niger within has sax´s, keyboard´s and curch organs, apart from the already mentioned guitars and drums. Funny is that Tomas Haake, Meshuggah´s famous polyrythmic drum God is present, but not behind the kit, but behind the mic. Haake sings, or better yet recites, in an almost snake-like voice (surely helped by some vocal effects) some of his most gallant work ever, alternating between spacy philosophy, existencial matters and jiberish nonsense, but all very well executed. Instead, Kaipa´s Morten Agren takes the role behind the drums and the result is some of the best jazzy drumming in metal I have yet to hear. Very laid back, almost Avant garde like, never ever getting tight, always loose and fun. The sax´s and key´s give the music an extra dimension we won´t find in any Meshuggah album... ever. Not that that´s a bad thing, but just to make clear that Special Defects, although it might be just as heavy as Meshuggah, it´s not the same music. But of course at the end it all comes down to Thodendal´s guitar work. The machine like riffs, the unusual melodys, the atmospheric fast jazzy solos and the through out impecable compositions make this just as good (and even better in some cases) as Meshuggah´s most acomplished works.

Though out the 50 min that the “song” lasts the margins of what is metal and what is Avant garde become more and more blurry until there are no such margins at all.

Recommended to the interested in the more extreme sides of music, those who are not afraid to submerge into uneasy territory. If you are one of those then take my 5 stars rating not as totally subjective (although there is a lot of it) but as an objective review, for this is a very important album for it´s genre. If you aren´t one of this people, then maybe see this as a 4 stars revie with a possible recommendation, hoping you will be of the first ones after a while.