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Tech Death Machines Meshuggah are Back with a Terrifying New Song, “Born in Dissonance”

And drummer Tomas Haake spilled the beans about the extreme inspirations for new album 'The Violent Sleep of Reason.'

Photo courtesy of the artist

Swedish extreme metal pioneers Meshuggah announced their eighth full-length album, The Violent Sleep of Reason, at the start of this month, their first since 2012’s widely-acclaimed Koloss. All we’ve had to tide us over since is a teaser from drummer Tomas Haake, talking about the inspiration behind the record: extremism, ignorance, destruction, the full range of terror, basically.

Until this morning, that is, when they released the first track from the new album.“Born in Dissonance" is faster and more frantic than much of Koloss; Jens Kidman’s drawn-out barks dominate, while Haake, as ever, ably embodies that rare combination of precision and monstrous power behind the kit.

Haake also dug deeper into the album’s inspiration and lyrical content in an interview with Rolling Stone. The album’s title is broadly a statement on current events, he said, but it draws more specifically on Francisco Goya’s "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters." The monster, says Haake, is an ever-present: “The lyrics are my reaction to seeing the humanitarian crisis going on in the Middle East and Syria and how there are millions of people fleeing, and Europe is closing its borders to them.”

Listen to “Born in Dissonance” below. The Violent Sleep of Reason is out October 7 on Nuclear Blast.

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