Meshuggah

Karl Hungus

Ok, if you're not familiar with Meshuggah, click here.

Anyway, I've been listening to Meshuggah for a while, the first album I got of theirs was "Nothing" and while I thought they were alright, I wasn't really amazed by them. After that I got "I" and "Catch 33" when they came out, and "I" was definetly my favourite of theirs, probably the closest they came to impressing me.

I found their music overly chuggy, with a lot of the songs really sounding the same as a result, and I really had to be in the right mood to listen to them, but lately I've been getting more into them and I think I'm finally seeing what's so fantastic about them. I'm not too sure what finally made me 'Get' them, but I've been listening to them more and more, and I can really seem to zone out to them.

Right now I'm just really loving them, and I plan to get some more of their older releases. I've since got Chaosphere, because I was just listening to the song New Millennium Cyanide Christ over and over.

So, with that said, what do people here think of them?

nosmo

I've been listening to them for a good while, I got a few of their songs a few years back and even in my earlier days I found them to be a little too chuggy. Even these days I find the overall sound of their first few albums to be a bit unbearable (production wise) but about a year ago I got a few albums and I've been listening since pretty much.

Catch33 is probably my favourite, there are one or two dodgy tracks (particularly the ones where the vocoder gets used) but overall there's a ridiculous amount of groove in the drumming and the riffs are jerky enough to catch you off guard while remaining interesting.

Alucard II

not a band i can listen to over and over, but they've some kickass stuff. favourite albums are probably Catch 33 & Destroy Erase Improve. also, the video for New Millenium Cyanide Christ is hilarious

projectmayhem

fantastic band. i think new millenium cyanide christ is a good example of what they do, but is also probably their most "accessable" (that word doesn't really suit the band, but you get my point) song...

i think they are fantastic but they're not a band i pull from the cd collection often, kind of like fantomas or sunn o)))).

LightofDarkness

Not a band I regard very highly at all, the somewhat similar sonuding (yet far more coherent) Coprofago I hold in a much higher regard. Some bits on D.E.I. are cool. I find I have a problem with pretentious bands anyway, I don't know why, but something cheeses me off when a band creates some simple music and says it's some higher form of art or something to that effect. Can't it just be music? Mind you it's often the fans that mould this image (see: Tool). I sound like a proper **** I'm sure.

Karl Hungus

LightofDarkness wrote:

Mind you it's often the fans that mould this image (see: Tool).

Yeah, probably. Meshuggah have always seemed very tongue in cheek to me, and not pretentious in the slightest.

Anyway, I like Coprofago, but there's definetly something about Meshuggah that's really clicked with me lately. I'm listening to I right now, and all I can think is that while Coprofago are good, they've never done anything that comes close to this.

Alucard II

LightofDarkness wrote:

I find I have a problem with pretentious bands anyway, I don't know why, but something cheeses me off when a band creates some simple music and says it's some higher form of art or something to that effect. Can't it just be music? Mind you it's often the fans that mould this image (see: Tool). I sound like a proper **** I'm sure.

i'm a MASSIVE Tool fan, but...i get what you're saying particularly online, you get people who are just fanatical to a fault about them, elevate them to godlike status and whatnot. then again, extreme fanaticism in any regard pisses me off.

i wouldnt say that Meshuggah or Tool create "simple" music tho. from a guitarists point of view, neither may be massively challenging or anything, but their music can be quite complex and convoluted on the compositional side of things, and i dare you to label either Danny Carey or Thomas Haake "simple" drummers.

EDIT: i meant to say, while their music can come across kinda pretentious, what with its long repeating passages (neccesary to resolve extensive polymetres), i doubt the bands pretentiousness. the video for New Millenium Cyanide Christ is far too funny for that, and i've seen some other clips of the band ****in about backstage, etc, and they seem quite down to earth, probably bang on guys to boot

pbsuxok1znja4r

^Haha aren't/weren't you a member of the "Reverend Maynard" / "Maynard is God" club on UG?

These guys are like one non-stop breakdown. I like it. Heh, like or not, I can draw many, many parallels between Meshuggah and some cool hardcore bands here. I quite like their vocals, too, which I can't say for a lot of real metal bands. They do insane things rhythmically. Cool vid.

Karl Hungus

scouser.tommy wrote:

These guys are like one non-stop breakdown. I like it. Heh, like or not, I can draw many, many parallels between Meshuggah and some cool hardcore bands here. I quite like their vocals, too, which I can't say for a lot of real metal bands. They do insane things rhythmically. Cool vid.

Apart from the vocals, what are these many parallels?

mp3guy

Fantastic band. Got DEI first, which I thought was alright, but then got "I" which I really got into, then I got chaosphere, which is much better than DEI. Got Nothing there last week, good so far.

Alucard II

scouser.tommy wrote:

^Haha aren't/weren't you a member of the "Reverend Maynard" / "Maynard is God" club on UG?

hehe, nah, i stay away from club thingies on there. they're pointless. one thing i've noticed lately is that whenever people naysay Tool some of the guys who i thought were cool turn into jackasses who all but write off the perpetrators right to have an opinion. i'm all for free choice.

but yeah, i dont really see many similarities you could draw between Meshuggah and hardcore. the vocals...similar. the guitar style is similar to that used in a breakdown i guess, but is used in a different context in a Meshuggah song. i can kinda see WHERE you're coming from, i'm just not there.

pbsuxok1znja4r

Karl Hungus wrote:

Apart from the vocals, what are these many parallels?

Abundant muted open chords/powerchords. "Chugs", if you will. Staccatto ones at that. You trying to call BS on me or something? Don't go taking what I said as some kind of insult to Meshuggah or anything.

Ph3n0m

as someone who has never listened to Meshuggah before, I have to say I liked what I heard.

time for some purchasing

any recommendations?

toffo

Lilke chaosphere, and nothing, find I have to be in the mood to listen to them.

Alucard II

scouser.tommy wrote:

You trying to call BS on me or something? Don't go taking what I said as some kind of insult to Meshuggah or anything.

i think he was just asking what similarities you saw, not naysaying your opinion.

Ph3n0m wrote:

any recommendations?

i would say Destroy Erase Improve. great album. for some newer stuff, check out Catch 33.

/2 cents

Karl Hungus

scouser.tommy wrote:

Abundant muted open chords/powerchords. "Chugs", if you will. Staccatto ones at that. You trying to call BS on me or something? Don't go taking what I said as some kind of insult to Meshuggah or anything.

No, I'm not trying to call BS on you, nor am I taking it as an insult. It was just a genuine question.

Ph3n0m wrote:

as someone who has never listened to Meshuggah before, I have to say I liked what I heard.

time for some purchasing

any recommendations?

If you liked the video for New Millennium Cyanide Christ, then I'd suggest you get Chaosphere, which is the album the song is from. Great album, that.

Morf

The "I" ep is my personal favourite, slightly less structured, bit more of an improvised jam

Dathai

Been listening to those lads for a few years, quality stuff, newer stuff is really getting repetetive, seems like they've run out of ideas now.

Outstanding band none the less.Been listening to alot of Fred's work and collaborations lately, and some or Marten Agren's work also(he did a collab with Fred for an instructional drumming video, get), also great work.

pbsuxok1znja4r

Karl Hungus wrote:

No, I'm not trying to call BS on you, nor am I taking it as an insult. It was just a genuine question.

Hah, yeah, cool, sorry bout that. Looks like I was extra grumpy this morning.

Alucard II

Dathai wrote:

Been listening to those lads for a few years, quality stuff, newer stuff is really getting repetetive, seems like they've run out of ideas now.

Outstanding band none the less.Been listening to alot of Fred's work and collaborations lately, and some or Marten Agren's work also(he did a collab with Fred for an instructional drumming video, get), also great work.

his name is Morgan Agren, little circle above the A in Agren. seen as i'm broke and cant afford to buy CDs, i've been otherwise acquiring the Sol Niger Within album, but the ****in thing has been sitting unseeded at 99.8% for over a week.
the jam between Fred & Morgan on youtube is ****ing awesome; Agren is a beast.

Karl Hungus

This is the Fredrick/Morgan video.

It puzzles me why he has the top 3 strings taped off though, surely he knows how to mute?

mp3guy

Its not a jam afaik, just some parts of sol niger within. He probably has them taped off incase on the off chance he hits them or they feedback, which is fine since he's not gonna use them anyway.

Shiminay

Haven't read everyone's replies, so forgive if I repeat someone's point...

I like Meshuggah, haven't listened to them in a while. Saw them live in France, didn't get into it, wasn't in the mood. It's very much a right time and place relationship I have with them Got home and stuck a cd of theirs on and loved it. Such is life.

The point about it "being art man" is a fair one I think. It's good music and it's thinking outside of the box slightly which does make it interesting to listen to in the first place (and makes it harder to get into live). Alucard's point about people banging on about them on the internet doesn't help

Moojuice

I think they are great, but I have to be in the mood to listen to them. I love Straws Pulled at Random from Nothing (great album), it is a really good track and different to a lot of their stuff. They do have a tendency to repeat themselves and can sound samey at times. But I look forward to their next release, hopefully they will progress a bit more and try something slightly different (along the lines of Straws Pulled at Random)

Alucard II

i was listening to Nothing last night. think i'll have to push it up alongside DEI & Catch 33 as my favourites. probably ahead of Catch 33

Karl Hungus

I think the whole "Have to be in the mood" thing seems fairly common alright.

Personally though, I'd say Nothing was a lot better than Catch 33. Infact, out of all my Meshuggah albums, I consider Catch 33 the worst. Maybe it still needs to 'click' with me, took a long while before I got into Nothing, so I'm certainly going to give it more time, but right now, it ain't my favourite at all.

projectmayhem

Karl Hungus wrote:

out of all my Meshuggah albums, I consider Catch 33 the worst.

i'd go with this sentiment. but it's not the music or direction of the album per se, i think it's more to do with the commitment of having to sit down with it for the entirety of it, rather then being able to stick a song or two into a playlist for my journey home...

Karl Hungus

projectmayhem wrote:

i'd go with this sentiment. but it's not the music or direction of the album per se, i think it's more to do with the commitment of having to sit down with it for the entirety of it, rather then being able to stick a song or two into a playlist for my journey home...

You know, I've heard that you do need to stick with it for the entirety, as it's supposed to be one song, just broken up into seperate tracks, but for me it doesn't have anywhere near the completeness or coherence that "I" does as a single song, and I'll probably listen to it straight 2 or 3 times in a row on repeat. That's generally the way I listen to music, oddly enough, just stick on an album and keep listening to it.

But still, Catch 33 hasn't grasped me.

Dathai

The video with Fred/Morgan is part of Morgan's instructional video.

Apologies about the typo on Morgan's name :P

crazy angel

Karl Hungus wrote:

Ok, if you're not familiar with Meshuggah, click here.

Anyway, I've been listening to Meshuggah for a while, the first album I got of theirs was "Nothing" and while I thought they were alright, I wasn't really amazed by them. After that I got "I" and "Catch 33" when they came out, and "I" was definetly my favourite of theirs, probably the closest they came to impressing me.

I found their music overly chuggy, with a lot of the songs really sounding the same as a result, and I really had to be in the right mood to listen to them

im pretty much at the stage you described right there^^
maybe ill get into their music more, maybe i wont. will just have to wait and see

Frank Bullitt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMmsVxn8d4k&mode=related&search=
insane band,they make things that are so difficult to do look easy,incredible band

Morf

Just got the new version of nothing, havent given it a full listen yet but the first two songs sound good and the dvd looks great

Karl Hungus

Morf wrote:

Just got the new version of nothing, havent given it a full listen yet but the first two songs sound good and the dvd looks great

I didn't bother getting it myself, what kinda differences are there? Is the DVD any good?

Morf

emm i havent listened to both cds on after another to see the difference but the videos are great especially the one with jens playing all the instruments on his own at a desk while wearing wigs along to rational gaze

senordingdong

'I' is the only album of theirs that I'm familiar with. I'll admit there was some skepticism, but I was really, really impressed.
It just opened up a whole new dimension of music to me.