CONTRADICTIONS COLLAPSE

Before I decided to review this, I opted on reading some already existing reviews to get some inspiration. With that in mind, Jjlehto's review translates perfectly what I see in this album, and I won't repeat what has already been pronounced. Instead, I'll recommend you to read his review and give my input on why CONTRADICTIONS COLLAPSE is a masterpiece, but not for progressive metal, as well on some details about the conceptuality.

Well, first things first: this isn't a Swedish band merely influenced by METALLICA's MASTER OF PUPPETS or ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, this is a blatant copy gone right. You can literally hear James Hetfield on the first track, Paralyzing Ignorance. But the difference is that where Lars suck as a drummer, Haake nails it.

As an authentic fan of thrash metal, I attest this groundbreaking this is for the genre. It was released in the same year thrash gained mainstream fame with METALLICA's BLACK ALBUM and MEGADETH's COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION, but at the same time, lost its beautiful characteristic that made it so great while underground: aggressivity and an anti-mainstream sentiment. And while the big guys of the genre, by the 90's, started to lack those characteristics, MESHUGGAH comes up and BAM! you get this crushing release. MESHUGGAH came with a very clear message: we are a true thrash band.

Now let's progress to talk about the musicianship. Boy, technicality is beyond absurd, and it sounds delightfully unique for the thrash ears. The way everything's so odd and even and changing and shifting and quick and slow and groovy and heavy and then the snares and beats get confusing... it's innovative in the thrash scene, to say the least. The talent of those guys, in special the drummer and the guitarist, is something to praise a LOT about.

Lastly, as I've made myself clear (more often than needed, I suppose), this is would be for ThrashArchives.org what Pawn Hearts is for ProgArchives. Creative, refreshing, highly-rated, heavily rated. But sadly we're not at ThrashArchives. And bearing in mind this is a PROGRESSIVE focused forum, we can't really attest much progressiveness here. It's more of a "thrash with some progressive elements" than "progressive with thrash core". You can't get a distinctively prog feeling here from aside the polyrhythms and changing time signatures and insane breakdowns. I think that the fairest rating for this would be something around "3.6/5". I... might even quote Jjlehto (he's kind of becoming my hero on this Meshuggah business): "Overall, a great album! Obviously the regular progger should stay away from this. [...] fans of prog-metal this is a good work! It is still very thrashy so it depends on how metal your taste is".

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