Chaosphere

This article is about the album. For the symbol, see Symbol of Chaos.

Chaosphere is the third studio album by Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah. It was released on 9 November 1998 by Nuclear Blast, and is the only studio album to feature bassist Gustaf Hielm. Chaosphere's sound shows the band toning down some of the thrash style of their previous releases in favor of the technical, polyrhythmic, groove-oriented sound they would continue to explore on subsequent albums. A video was made for "New Millennium Cyanide Christ".

Chaosphere
Studio album by Meshuggah
Released	9 November 1998[1]
Recorded	May–July 1998[2]
Studio	Dug-Out, Uppsala, Sweden Area 51 and Uae-Function studio, Stockholm, Sweden
Genre	Progressive metal[3] groove metal[4] avant-garde metal
Length	47:20
Label	Nuclear Blast
Producer	Daniel Bergstrand, Fredrik Thordendal
Meshuggah chronology
The True Human Design (1997) Chaosphere (1998) Rare Trax (2001)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[5]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	9/10[6]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[7]
Pitchfork	8.6/10[8]

The Japanese version of the album contains a bonus song, titled "Unanything", as track 9. This song was also included on the promotional card-sleeve CD as track 6. On both this and the standard album release, after "Elastic" there is a period of silence then an unlisted and unindexed track where four of the album's songs are played at once, with volume changes making each song somewhat dominant and recognisable in the mix at different times.

The "Reloaded" re-release features five of the six tracks from The True Human Design EP.

Track listing

No.	Title	Music	Length
1.	"Concatenation"	Thordendal	4:14
2.	"New Millennium Cyanide Christ"	Thordendal, Hagström	5:35
3.	"Corridor of Chameleons"	Thordendal	5:02
4.	"Neurotica"	Hagström	5:19
5.	"The Mouth Licking What You've Bled"	Thordendal	3:57
6.	"Sane"	Kidman, Hagström	3:48
7.	"The Exquisite Machinery of Torture"	Haake, Thordendal	3:55
8.	"Elastic"	Hagström	15:30
Total length:			47:20

All lyrics are written by Tomas Haake, except "Neurotica" by Mårten Hagström.

Japanese bonus track

No.	Title	Music	Length
9.	"Unanything"	Meshuggah	3:01
Total length:			50:21

Re-release bonus tracks

No.	Title	Music	Length
10.	"Sane" (demo version)	Kidman, Hagström	4:07
11.	"Future Breed Machine" (Mayhem version)	Meshuggah	8:12
12.	"Futile Bread Machine" (Campfire version)	Meshuggah	3:30
13.	"Future Breed Machine" (Quant's Quantastical Quantasm)	Meshuggah	7:31
14.	"Future Breed Machine" (Remix)	Meshuggah	6:48
Total length:			80:29

Personnel

Meshuggah

• Jens Kidman – vocals
• Fredrik Thordendal – lead guitar, keyboards
• Mårten Hagström – rhythm guitar
• Gustaf Hielm – bass
• Tomas Haake – drums, vocals (on "Sane", "The Exquisite Machinery of Torture", and "Futile Bread Machine (Campfire Version)")

Production

• Daniel Bergstrand – recording, mixdown
• Fredrik Thordendal – recording, mixdown
• Peter in de Betou – mastering (at Cutting Room, Stockholm, Sweden)
• Tomas Haake – artwork, design
• Meshuggah – art direction
• John Norhager – band photo