Vogg from Decapitated Talks About Meshuggah

A friend recently commented that it seems like all the bands with their own take on progressive heaviness are making appearances this fall.  Gojira kicked off the summer with their new album and the ensuing tour, then Leprous, Haken, the Dillinger Escape Plan, Devin Townsend, Fallujah, Between the Buried and Me, Gorguts, Intronaut and a bunch of others have all thrown their crazy-shaped hats in the ring.  

Decibel cover crushers Meshuggah are also out to pulp hearts and minds with their latest, The Violent Sleep of Reason, and the major world tour currently in progress.  We got lucky when we sought out other voices to comment on Meshuggah’s continued power and relevance – our search led to conversations with tourmates John Baizley of Baroness and Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka of Decapitated.  You can read some of what Baizley had to say in our cover story, and here we present Vogg’s musings that didn’t make it to print.  The interview was conducted in late August, so some of the information isn’t the freshest, but hopefully fun to read nonetheless!

When did you first hear Meshuggah’s music?  What else were you listening to at the time, and what struck you about the band?

I heard Meshuggah in 2005 – so quite late – and I was blown away about how good they were. My friend from school told me about this band and he said, “There is something way more heavy than Pantera,” of which I was always a big fan. I think it was the album Nothing and I remember my thoughts were what great riffs those guys make and what weird and cool drums and rhythmic parts that don’t sound like anything else. Hearing Meshuggah for the first time was really, really, cool and unexpected.

 What was the tour with Meshuggah like?

Awesome! Those guys are some of nicest people I ever met. They killed it every single night. I remember the first show on the 2012 US tour in Houston, TX… I couldn’t believe they sound that huge and great!!! Also a light show!!! I was totally blown away that I couldn’t believe this was not a dream. They were always great to us. We had one-hour sound checks every day and if there was a time delay, they even moved doors 30 minutes later so we and other support bands can do a full sound check. This doesn’t happened too often….We did 3 tours with them and all of them were just perfect. Also, great crew – so professional. I learned so many things from those guys and they inspired us a lot too.

Both Meshuggah and Decapitated are very technical, but in pretty different ways.  What do you think of Meshuggah’s approach to music, in contrast (or comparison?) to how Decapitated has worked on music over the years?

I think a similar thing for both bands can be that Meshuggah and Decapitated always see to the best possible musical performance – live and studio. Both bands take care so much about details. Meshuggah and Decapitated are not bands that use make-up, special effects, etc.. We want to deliver the best possible music.

What are your thoughts on their recorded albums, from what you first heard until now?

Some of their older albums still sound very good but you can hear that it was recorded quite long time ago and production is not that fresh like that of the newest albums. I really like the production of Catch 33  and Koloss, those two are my favorite if we are talking about sound. I still haven’t heard the new one, but as far as I know them, it will be a MASTERPIECE.

Check out all upcoming Meshuggah tour dates here.