MÅSSTADEN

Vildhjarta, as far as I know, is a relatively new band from the ever-high-quality musical metal landscape of Sweden, where an impressive band will appear out of nowhere at any given moment. A word that I don't think I've used in any of my reviews so far, and that some people kind of despise using, is "djent", which is the onomatopoeia for the downtuned 8-string staccato polyrhythmic guitar playing style that was basically invented by infamous countrymates Meshuggah nearly a decade ago, and this word epitomizes the sound of this album.

Masstaden is filled to the brim with absolutely nasty, impossibly heavy, brain- numbingly complex metal arrangements that are primarily based around infectious, yet impenetrable rhythms. Like with all of Meshuggah's music, there is a clear beat that the music is centered around, but everything happening around the beat is enough to make any metalhead music theory nerd drool for the entire 51 minutes. For the most part, clearly defined melodies are completely eschewed, opting for slow- to mid-paced 8-string grinding and demanding blasts of percussion, though after repeated listens, the nearly atonal guitar melodies shine through and become just as infectious as the polyrhythmic grooves they create. This is one of those albums that requires multiple listens, then some more, and then some more, for it to be successfully picked apart and understood.

Something that really catches my ear when listening to this album is the production -- it's absolutely fantastic. Though the overall atmosphere is profoundly dark and murky and oppressive, each instrument and each minute detail shines through on its own, making the listening experience as engaging as can be. This is very fortunate, considering the extreme amount of detail that has obviously been put into constructing just the guitar riffs, making them as confusing as possible. Listening to this album is like running through swampy woods at night with my eyes blindfolded, while being hunted by creatures unnamed and unseen. Though each track warrants a hard foot-tapping to the immediate and wonderful beats, the atmosphere created by this band is absolutely haunted.

All of that being said, this isn't a perfect album. First of all, there are two vocalists, which could have made for an interesting listening experience and could have been something else to set this band apart from the countless other djenty bands that have been popping up over the past couple of years, but the two vocalists are basically indistinguishable and have the same mid-range growls and screams that aren't even really too great to begin with (they do fit the music style, however). Upon seeing that they did, in fact, have two vocalists, I was extremely surprised. Still, the vocalists get the job done and do well to further establish the moodiness of this album. The music itself, though it is very high quality metal and definitely some of the best djent style metal since Meshuggah created it, Vildhjarta sound is a bit too similar. At times, this album sounds like it actually could be a Meshuggah album, the only difference being the production and the vocalists. This band does seem to carefully add a lot more into the little details of each composition, but it doesn't seem like anything that Thordenal and Haake wouldn't be able to do if they wanted to.

Despite my small gripes, and considering that this is only Vildhjarta's debut album, they did a stellar job and have created a djent album that stands out in its demented production quality and nearly incomprehensible complexity. Masstaden is no classic, but any fan of the ever expanding 8-string dominated side of metal should adore this album.

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