Fans of Meshuggah, take heed: If you are in need of a fix after spinning “obZen” too many times, you might very well enjoy “Harmony of Discord” by The Destro. Now, you’re not going to get those insane yet incredible polyrhythms, the haunting ambient breaks or the almost epic song lengths. However, you will get an album with down-tuned crushing riffs, thick guitar tones and a comparable intensity.

The opener, “Justifiers of Malice”, is a mix of fast, “blast beat” intensity and mid tempo pummeling. Immediately upon hearing this, I thought that I’d found a musical relative to Meshuggah, albeit a bit more accessible. Easily their longest song at under five and a half minutes, this song sets the standard for the album.

The Destro come to this sophomore effort with guns blazing and teeth bared. To their credit, the production of the album is almost neck-to-neck with them. The guitar sounds huge and articulate. The vocals sit very tightly in the mix. The bass is hard to distinguish from the guitar since the guitar is tuned low and has a massive amount of bottom end. Although more often than not the bass cannot be heard, it can still be felt and that’s what matters. The drums are a mix of good and bad. The bass drum is crisp and solid, the toms spaciously panned and also solid sounding. The cymbals, however, seems to lack some high end to compensate for the massive amounts of low end and the snare goes from having a nice, noticeable snap to getting lost in the mix. Overall though, a professional sounding production.

This album is relatively short at only 29 minutes (give or take), and these nine tracks don’t take any time for buildup. The song starts, hits hard and before you know it, its over. The only concern is that the songs can easily bleed into each other. If you like one song, it’s practically a given that you will enjoy the rest.

“Harmony of Discord” is not destined to be a classic by any means but it offers a good time whenever you want to pop it in.