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Meshuggah - I CD (album) cover

I

Meshuggah

 

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal

4.17 | 140 ratings

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topofsm
5 stars If you are a fan of Extreme metal and extreme time signature work, this is probably one of the best EPs you can get. This is a 21 minute piece of absolutely brutal metal that experiments with some of the most complex rhythmical work ever created.

It starts off with a brutal quick tempo double bass part with the guitars chugging away in all their polyrhythms. At first it sounds like a quick 7/8, but like most Meshuggah work, the meters eventually develop and change. The rhythms get more and more complex until everything drops out for a split second, and then everything comes in at once. Thomas Haake is doing a constant cymbal crash/bass drum blastbeat, Hagstrom and Thordendal do quick guitar chord thrashing, and Jens Kidman does an impressively long scream until everything drops out again.

Then the thrash/groove/technical metal with chugging odd-time guitars and drums come in and Kidman begins the vocals. The song is truly off at this point. The song continues to develop rhythms and riffs over and over in true Meshuggah style. The riffs keep transitioning smoothly into different sections until about 6 minutes in when a crazy guitar solo comes in, filled with seemingly random notes, evoking insanity. This intense solo continues until it seems like it won't end until suddenly everything drops out. What was just a blistering succession of notes suddenly turns into a quiet atmosphere. This is when it seems like the song finally has some melody. This section continues for a minute, until there's a note that seems to drift off. A note that is only played once for a few seconds. You wonder why everything's drifting off, and the next thing you know, everything comes back all at once, making the listener jump in their seat. The atmospherics are broken by one of the coolest polymetric riffs ever created.

The song continues in this type of fashion from here. I am very impressed in the way this band develops rhythms as opposed to the way most bands develop their melodies. I am also impressed at how they can make good transitions from one sections from the next. And their way of making near-no melody brutal metal have distinct sections throughout the entire piece is very interesting. I definetely reccomend this EP to any extreme metal fan.

topofsm | 5/5 |

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