Background
In an interview with Revolver, Haake stated that obZen would be a collective return to the band's past works, signaling a shift in direction away from their previous effort, Catch Thirtythree. "We've got some fast, intense songs and hectic, heavy stuff that draws from all the things we've done in the past."
The album was originally planned for release in November 2007, prior to a European tour featuring Meshuggah and The Dillinger Escape Plan. The recording process for obZen took longer than expected and led the band to drop out of the tour, later explaining on their official website that the "album-promotional" aspect of the touring no longer applied and that they would rather focus their priorities on getting the record finished.
In an interview, drummer Tomas Haake commented further on the time taken to record the album: "This time around we took almost six months to do all the recording and the sampling we definitely took our time". Drumkit from Hell was used on the album, but not programmed as Catch 33 was. Drumkit from Hell was an auxiliary sound source. He elaborated on the concept of the album in another interview, saying: "If you haven't figured it out yet, obZen means that mankind has found its 'zen' in the obscure and obscene." Haake also mentioned his favorite track on this album is "Dancers to a Discordant System". Meshuggah premiered the song live at the opening show of the Koloss tour in Bristol, England on April 12, 2012. It was performed as the closing song for every show on the tour since then.
The song "Bleed" was released as DLC for the Rock Band video games via the Rock Band Network on June 18, 2010.
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