Meshuggah hits New Zealand shores next week for a one-off show, launching their Australasian tour in the thunderous style fans have become accustomed to.

The Swedish progressive metal pioneers will play Auckland’s Powerstation on Thursday, March 9, with support from Thy Art Is Murder, whose 2015 album Holy War cemented their spot at the top of Australia’s extreme metal pile.

Meshuggah’s tour marks 30 years in the music business, proving their virtuosic prowess by taking their cathedral-complex compositions to stages all over the world. It also comes on the back of their eighth studio album, The Violent Sleep Of Reason, which builds on their legacy for fearless metal sculpting within the context of extreme metal.

The band’s drummer Tomas Haake says they’re keen to make sure their New Zealand and Australian fans get something they don’t hear in other bands. “On the first album you still hear a lot of Metallica and Anthrax and Bay Area kind of thrash metal influence. We knew that we sounded a bit like that, but we were aiming for something we hadn’t heard in any other band. And that’s still the main fuel. We’re not trying to write your average metal song.” 

“The crowd we have is diverse. We have a lot of geeks and nerds and weirdos, and they are beautiful ones, you know? We have a lot of people with talent, and a lot of people that are interested in music as art, and not just an event.”

Meshuggah

Thursday March 9th: The Powerstation, Auckland

Tickets via AAA Ticketing