On Feb. 24, 2022, Meshuggah released the music video for their latest single “The Abysmal Eye.” It precedes their upcoming album Immutable, which is due on April 1, 2022.
The Swedish band’s new song is a thunderous introduction to Immutable, which is sure to be equally unapologetic and ferocious.
Vocalist Jens Kidman tells the lyrical and simultaneously haunting story of a “menacing creation/That we ourselves conceived.” At face value, the story within the song is fantastical; one can’t help but to link “The Abysmal Eye” to Tolkein’s famed Eye of Sauron. The lyrics go on to describe the beast that the people created, and the video displays a horde of people running towards a foreboding construction in the middle of a desert.
The creation of the being described in the song will lead to destruction: “The fabric and all that holds it/Will all burn/It will all be torn down.” The only way to stop this from happening is to contain the menace that was brought to life, but the lyrics give the audience little hope: “It will see us fail.”
The song is overall reminiscent of stories with ancient roots, ones that describe unimaginable destruction that is, at the same time, inescapable once released. Meshuggah reference one such ancient story of an all-powerful evil, “Pandora’s quantum prison.” In doing this, the lyrics tell us that it is too late for the people in the story; we know how this ends. Pandora’s box will be opened.
As such, the video ends with the death of countless individuals, presumably drawn into the hole they were running towards as a result of the creature.
Meshuggah are sure to keep up the momentum and epic storytelling in their album.
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