Meshuggah at The Garage Preview

Nobody likes it when a band cancels, not even the band. So when Meshuggah vocalist Jens Kidman tells a packed Garage how happy the Swedish experi-metal quintet are to be here tonight - for the first time since 1995 - after having to cancel that tasty tour they'd planned with Dillinger Escape Plan last year, you can take it to the bank. Instantly the crowd is thrust into a frenzied sea of uniformed head banging as the band - led by the grimacing, metronomic head butts of Kidman - let off riffs like shotgun blasts in slow motion, unconditionally blowing away this horde of awestruck metal-heads. From the opening roars of Perpetual Black Second, to the manic vocoder solo in closer, Future Breed Machine, this is a full-on assault of technical riffage at its most brutal. Newer songs such as Bleed and Electric Red- from the excellent ObZen - are met with rabid fervour but it's the firm favourites Rational Gaze and Straws Pulled at Random that quite simply tear the place apart. Truly epic. [Ryan Drever]

Read our review of Meshuggah at The Garage.