Four decades of polyrhythmic punishment, impossible guitar riffs and musical brain-melting. Meshuggah are celebrating 40 years in the business with a massive European tour in 2027.
Some bands make music. Others completely change the way people think about making music. Meshuggah have spent the last four decades doing rather a lot of the latter.
The Swedish metal innovators have announced The Forty-Year Anomaly, a huge 2027 anniversary tour taking in 20 dates across the UK and Europe, with progressive metal heavyweights Periphery and Vildhjarta joining them as special guests.
For UK fans, the tour includes two dates:
- 29 October 2027 – Manchester, Aviva Studios
- 30 October 2027 – London, OVO Arena Wembley
The European run begins in Copenhagen on 29 September before making its way across the continent and eventually wrapping up in London.
Formed in Umeå, Sweden, back in 1987, Meshuggah have spent much of their career sounding like they’re playing music from another dimension. Albums such as Destroy Erase Improve, Chaosphere, Nothing and obZen helped establish a sound built around punishing rhythms, disorientating time signatures and riffs that seem determined to tie your brain in knots.
Their influence on modern metal is difficult to overstate. The term ‘djent’ might have become a genre of its own, but Meshuggah were arguably doing it long before anyone had settled on a name for it. Their approach to rhythm and guitar work helped shape an entire generation of progressive and technical metal bands.
And the support package makes this anniversary run particularly interesting. Periphery have become one of the defining names in modern progressive metal, while Vildhjarta have taken the heavier, more experimental side of the genre into some seriously strange territory. Both owe something to the foundations Meshuggah helped lay.
The band’s most recent studio album, Immutable, arrived in 2022, proving that even after 35 years they weren’t particularly interested in slowing down or playing it safe.
Forty years is a hell of an achievement, particularly for a band whose music has never exactly been designed for casual listening.
If you’ve ever wondered where so much of modern technical and progressive metal got its inspiration, this is probably a good place to start.
Four decades in, Meshuggah remain the anomaly. And we’re all still trying to keep up.
The Forty-Year Anomaly UK and European tour tickets go on general sale Friday 6 November 2026 at 11am GMT.
