THE TRUE HUMAN DESIGN

The 35:39 minutes long EP features 6 tracks. "Sane" opens the EP. A song that would later appear on "Chaosphere (1998)". So it´s a kind of teaser for the then upcoming new album by Meshuggah. "Future Breed Machine" from "Destroy Erase Improve (1995)" is up next in a live version. This track is pretty good but lacks the legendary intro from the original studio version which is a bit of a shame. The sound quality on this live version is of high quality. "Future Breed Machine" also appears in a so called "Mayhem" version that lasts 8:12 minutes. This version is in an industrial metal style and it´s a very repetitive take on the original song. "Futile Bread Machine (Campfire Version)" is the next track on the EP and it´s an acoustic track with drummer Tomas Haake singing some really silly sounding vocal parts. The last two tracks on the EP "Quant's Quantastical Quantasm" and "Friend's Breaking and Entering" are techno/electronic tracks with featuring sporadic samples. Probably remixes of Meshuggah songs but I must admit that I can´t hear which ones.

"The True Human Design" is very much a fan release and even fans of the band (which would normally include me) should be cautious and take a listen before purchasing this EP. Don´t expect much of Meshuggah´s trademark tech metal madness here. Only the first two tracks fall under that catagory. My personal opinion about this release isn´t too enthusiastic and a 2 star (40%) rating might even be stretching it a bit. For someone less conservative than me this release might be of some interest though. I prefer Meshuggah when they stick to playing crushingly heavy and complex odd-metered extreme metal.