PICTURES: EDVARD HANSSON
ROBB FLYNN: PRESS/TRAVIS SHINN • TRANSCRIPTION: KATIE BAKER
Childhood pals Tomas Haake and Mårten Hagström with bassist Dick Lövgren
Sweden’s Meshuggah are true tech metal visionaries. Since forming in Umeå 35 years ago, bound together by a love for the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, they’ve continually pushed against the boundaries of heavy music, with mind-melting polyrhythms topped off by fearsome, eye-popping vocals. As well as inadvertently inventing djent, their DNA is baked into most modern metal.
As the frontman of Machine Head, Robb Flynn is no stranger to a riff or two, but even he was stunned by the unrelenting attack of their 1994 EP, None, and took them on the road in Europe. As he sits down for a chat with Meshuggah axeman Mårten Hagström, on the eve of the release of Meshuggah’s 11th album, Immutable, the camaraderie and mutual respect between the two is undeniable. And while Mårten excitingly reveals he has enough leftover material from Immutable’s writing sessions for “three different albums”, it’s the band’s journey we’re interested in today. From Mårten meeting drummer Tomas Haake at school, to their detour into carpentry, to picking up an eight-string guitar, it’s been an extraordinary evolution.