By Martin Popoff
I asked Marten to point us to some of the key moments on the album. "I have more favorite songs from this album than I had on Chaosphere, even when talking about it right after the record. I would say my favourite song on this one is song #2, Rational Gaze, which I really think is a strong song. I like Closed Eye Visuals; I like that it's very atmospheric, in terms of a Meshuggah song, especially the breakdown in the middle. I think that's a really strong tune on the album and definitely one of the ones we'll play live. I also like the second to last song, the really slow one, Nebulous; I think that's a really weird thing for us to do and I thought it turned out really good, and Spasm. I mean, I could go on. The songs I think are the least striking right away are actually the first song and Glints Collide, perhaps. I mean, I like them, but those have to grow on you a little more."
With all the attention the band has been getting, as well as nipping onto the Billboard charts at #165, I asked Hagstrom if he's noticed any sort of a backlash beginning to build yet.
"No, not so far. But you never know what the future is going to hold. To us, I mean, this is a treat. We're from Sweden, we're on a small label, we're on the Ozzfest, we did Tool, we did Slayer in the states. We've been scoring some kind of high-profile tours, and with a band like us, I kind of expected a backlash, just because of that. I mean, we're doing tours where we are kind of fitting, but not 100%. With Ozzfest, we would fit a lot more if we were a nu-metal band, but we're not. But the response we're getting here in the states is sick. It's like people are really getting into it a lot more than I thought. When we left for the Slayer tour in '98, people were telling us, 'You should watch out. When you go over and play with Slayer, you're going to be playing to a tough crowd.' And we got none of that; it was all good. It was the same with Ozzfest. People said, 'You're going to be playing to a massive nu-metal crowd. They want to have turntables and clean high-pitched vocals and they want to have rap metal.' That's what's big now, but we've been getting none of that and people have been getting into it. But if there is a backlash, I won't have a problem with it. As long as we feel confident that what we are doing is ours, that's enough for me."
