I know there are some bands where clean vocals would fit after a small change in the band's usual writing style, but Meshuggah? I'm really just not hearing it. Jens Kidman yelling his ass off overtop the musical leviathan that are the instrumentalists in the band is just perfect the way it is, though to be fair, who knows? Not us, and not Meshuggah, because the band sure as hell isn't planning on doing that anytime soon.
In an interview with Metal Wani (below), drummer Tomas Haake says the band doesn't plan on deviating from its career of destructive heaviness and still loves the music it makes.
"If you take Opeth as an example, who are good friends of ours and a great live band, I think when you've been doing something for a long time, it's very easy to fall out of love with something because you grow tired of it. You want to change things. That's another thing I feel is fortunate with us. We still feel there is so much we can do within this framework that we are. We're not completely free. We can't just do anything. We're not going to change and start doing clean vocals. It wouldn't work for us. We want to always continue on the path that we set out on. Then again, it's impossible to say how we're going to feel about this kind of music in five or ten years from now. Right now, being 27 years into our career, we still feel we're onto something we love. We still feel there is so much cool shit that can be done within this framework that is us."
Maybe sometime in the late 2020s we'll get the most polymetric/rhythmic ballad the world has ever heard…
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy27K2Dq26c[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k3ptd4stVQ[/youtube]