MESHUGGAH's TOMAS HAAKE On Possible Follow-Up To 'Immutable' Album: 'There's Nothing In The Works'

In a new interview with The Downbeat Podcast, hosted by STRAY FROM THE PATH drummer Craig Reynolds, MESHUGGAH drummer Tomas Haake was asked if there are any plans for him and his bandmates to work on the follow-up to 2022's "Immutable" album. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "No. What are you, nuts? Well, we'll probably... There's nothing in the works. We're just gonna do this, we're gonna do this [40th-anniversary] tour [in 2027], or two years of tours, and then we'll see. No promises, but I think… What are we gonna do? We're gonna make another album."

Asked if he is ever completely happy with an album once it has been completed, Tomas said: "Most albums you always, and I think this is very common with most bands here, but it usually takes a bit of time or you have to just kind of submit to it. I think a lot of times we're always a little disappointed, be it your own playing or overall sound production, whatever it might be."

Referencing the fact that "Immutable" was remastered and released as "Immutable - The Indellible Edition" in April 2025 with an addition of three live tracks, Tomas said: "I feel very happy about the music on 'Immutable', but I do realize once we started talking about the remaster and then hearing the final result of actually doing remaster this quickly after the release, which we said is pretty weird, unusual, if not nothing else. But I realized that it's a shame that that didn't happen earlier or that that didn't happen from the get-go, that it wasn't that sound that it came out as. But I think it's kind of intrinsic in a lot of musicians that when you're a kind of self-deprecating, you're always scrutinizing yourself so hard that you're almost bound to be a little bit… Sure, you have the release of, like, 'Oh, it's done now,' but you also have that like nagging, 'Well, I wish I could've spent a little more time on this or that.' But I think for me personally, I was more like that and I think we all of us were more like that the further you go back in time, as far as the self-scrutiny and the 'imposter syndrome' feelings and all that kind of stuff. And as you mature and you get older, you learn to also brush things off. Like, big deal. It's a fucking album. Come on. It's not the end of the world. As long as at least if you feel like you can connect or if you feel proud of the material, or at least if you're okay with it, that's the battle half-won right there. So, yeah, that's how I feel about 'Immutable'."

As for what specifically he would change about "Immutable" if he had a chance to go back in time, Tomas said: "I think maybe there's a song on there maybe, or maybe two, that if you look at just the chunk of music, because it's a very long album…. I think it clocks in at — what? — almost 60 minutes or something like that. So looking at it more from just trying to place myself outside of the band and look in and, 'What are you doing here, guys?' If I was an executive producer for this album, I would've just probably taken a couple of songs out… I probably would've cut 'The Faultless'. I mean, I love aspects of it, and we're looking at it now as if the album is too long. If you have to scrap two songs… This is someone torturing me to have to take songs out. But I also love that it's a very long album and that you have songs like that that kind of just gives it a bit of another vibe. It kind of takes you a little bit sideways."

Last month, MESHUGGAH announced a North American headlining tour for early 2027, celebrating the groundbreaking band's fortieth anniversary with an extensive tour that sees the genre-defying Swedes make their debut at Red Rocks Amphitheatre and includes outings at Oakland's Fox Theater and the Brooklyn Paramount. Support on the trek will come from TESTAMENT and BLOOD INCANTATION.

Few bands have altered the vocabulary of heavy music as fundamentally as MESHUGGAH. Since forming in Umeå, Sweden, in the late '80s, the band has continually pushed the boundaries of metal, developing a sound built on complex rhythms, dissonance, repetition and crushing physicality that has influenced generations of musicians. Landmark albums including "Destroy Erase Improve", "Chaosphere" and "Nothing" helped redefine the possibilities of the genre, while songs such as "Future Breed Machine", "Rational Gaze" and "Bleed" have become touchstones for generations of musicians.

MESHUGGAH's influence can he heard across progressive and technical metal, as well as in the work of countless artists inspired by their approach. Yet their music has always stood apart from the movements they helped shape. A 2018 Grammy Award nomination for "Best Metal Performance" for "Clockworks" recognized their impact, while 2022's "Immutable" reaffirmed their place at the forefront of modern metal, topping both the U.K. Rock & Metal Albums chart and Billboard's Top Hard Rock Albums chart.

MESHUGGAH is Jens Kidman (vocals),Fredrik Thordendal (guitar),Tomas Haake (drums),Mårten Hagström (guitar) and Dick Lövgren (bass).